Boletus boletus are famous for their delicate taste and aroma; they are easy to prepare for the winter. How to dry boletus mushrooms at home correctly? Find out in this article.

How to dry boletus mushrooms at home?

It is important to thoroughly clean the mushrooms immediately after harvest. You do not need to wash them: just brush and cut off the damaged areas with a knife.

How to dry boletus in an electric dryer

Electric dryers for processing mushrooms are convenient in that you can practically not follow the process. They evaporate moisture, leaving all the beneficial qualities and delicate mushroom aroma. In addition, they do not darken with this cooking method.

How to properly harvest boletus in an electric dryer:

• Cut the mushrooms into slices. The thinner they are, the faster the drying process will go.
• Place the slices on trays, place them on the appliance and cover with a lid.
• boletus should be dried at a temperature of 55 degrees. The process will take about five hours. Periodically, it is worth changing the pallets in places so that all the mushrooms dry out evenly.

Perfectly dried boletus boletus spring, but do not break. If they darken and become brittle, then you have dried out the mushrooms. These slices should be ground into powder for soups and sauces.

How to dry boletus in the oven

Ovens are equipped with stoves in most apartments and houses, so this drying can be called universal. It does not require special costs and efforts.

How to proceed:

• Cut the mushrooms into thin slices and place on baking trays lined with parchment paper.
• Heat the oven to 70 degrees and place baking trays with boletus.
• After an hour, the slices must be turned over, and then dried for the same amount of time.

If the mushrooms are still wet, they should be kept in the oven longer, turning over from time to time.

You can also try to dry the gifts of the forest outdoors, weather permitting. There are two ways to save energy on these homemade products. Sliced \u200b\u200bboletus mushrooms can be laid out on paper or strung on a string and kept in a well-ventilated place. A fan heater will help speed up the process.

Drying mushrooms compares favorably with other types of their preparation for its simplicity, accessibility and convenience in storing the final product: 10 kg of fresh mushrooms are turned into one, so they take up little space on the shelves in the cupboards of urban kitchens. Dried mushrooms are superior to salted and pickled ones in their nutritional properties. Drying only enhances their aroma, which makes soups and main dishes from dried mushrooms tastier and richer than from fresh ones. In addition, they are easier to digest and digest, without causing heaviness in the stomach, as is the case with dishes made from fried and canned mushrooms; they can be safely eaten without the risk of getting sick with botulism.

As a perishable food, fresh mushrooms require immediate processing. If the so-called quiet hunt was successful and a lot of mushrooms were collected, drying in this case will greatly help out the hostess. When the weather is hot, sunny, dry and living conditions allow, it is convenient to dry mushrooms outside, strung on threads. In bad weather or lack of space, one of the safest ways is to dry mushrooms in ovens on gas and electric stoves. Those of them that are equipped with thermostats and convection mode, built-in fans, will greatly simplify the process and speed up the time, ensuring high quality drying.

Which mushrooms can be dried in the oven?
All tubular mushrooms are suitable for drying, but the best of them are porcini (boletus). Boletus, boletus, boletus and other tubular mushrooms (whose caps look like a sponge on the bottom) darken when dried, which makes them less suitable for making broths, but can be used for other dishes. Lamellar mushrooms (with the exception of honey agarics) should not be dried at all. Marsupial mushrooms (morels, stitches and truffles) can be dried.

Each type of mushroom should be dried separately from the others.

Processing mushrooms before drying
For drying, only young, fresh, strong specimens are selected without damage or wormholes.

You must not wash mushrooms intended for drying! Excess moisture complicates the process itself and contributes to the rapid deterioration of the mushrooms during storage. Dirt, needles and leaves adhering to the mushrooms are removed only mechanically, wiping the mushrooms with a soft cloth or scraping the debris with a knife. Wherein:

• in porcini mushrooms, the roots are completely or partially cut off, leaving no more than half of the stem; cut parts are dried separately;
  
• in boletus and aspen mushrooms, nothing is cut off, but the whole mushroom is cut vertically in half or into four parts;
  
• in morels and stitches, only the lower part of the leg is cut off;
  
• the truffles are cut into slices;
  
• small mushrooms are dried whole;
  
• large legs and caps are cut into several parts: 3–4 cm slices or 4–5 mm thick plates.
  

How do I place the mushrooms in the drying oven?
There are several different ways to place them optimally. Mushrooms can be:

• lay in rows at some distance from each other with hats down on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper or foil;
  
• spread out on a wire rack or grid with large meshes so that they can be used instead of baking trays; there can be several grids and grids at once;
  
• strung on long wooden knitting needles or on short splinters and spread them, as on spits, across the oven on the edges of its side walls, or put by sticking splinters into a container with sand;
  
• strung on a stern thread stretched in several rows on a frame with nails (along the perimeter of the oven);
  
• put on metal pins or wooden knitting needles driven in a checkerboard pattern at a distance of 6-10 cm from each other into metal shields or wooden boards.
  

The first stage of mushroom drying is drying
Mushrooms laid in one of the above ways are placed in an oven preheated to 40-50 ° C for drying. At higher temperatures, droplets of released protein form on them. This will complicate drying and degrade the quality of the final product; such mushrooms darken, lose their aroma and taste, and may become completely unsuitable for eating.

Convection mode, if any, should be turned on immediately. It will ensure a 100% successful result by blowing the moisture evaporating from the mushrooms out. In any case, with or without a fan, the oven door must be kept open throughout the entire drying process to ensure continuous air circulation inside the oven. In a closed oven, mushrooms will grill and bake, not dry.

The main stage of drying mushrooms in the oven
As soon as the surface of the mushrooms dries up and stops sticking to hands, the temperature in the oven is increased to 60–75 ° С. But no more! Otherwise, the color, taste and aroma of the mushrooms will suffer.

The exact drying time cannot be determined immediately. Even specimens carefully selected in size and thickness will dry out at different rates. Therefore, from time to time, the mushrooms must be checked by touch, turned over and removed dry, leaving unprepared to dry.

In old stoves with primitive gas ovens, the process with periodic ventilation, heating and cooling can take two days, but it will preserve the beautiful color of the mushroom pulp and insure the product from burning and overdrying.

Mushrooms can be strung on threads and dried first in the sun, and then dried in the oven. Or vice versa - first wither in the oven, and then dry in the sun.

If necessary, the mushrooms from the oven can also be dried in the air indoors.

How to determine the readiness of dried mushrooms?
The readiness of the mushrooms is determined by touch and break. When properly dried, they should be light, easy to bend, break, but not crumble.

How to store dried mushrooms in the oven?
Ready dried mushrooms are completely cooled and only then they are laid out in containers, metal or glass jars. Storage utensils should be perfectly dry with hermetically sealed lids. It should not get moisture from the air. Only in this case the mushrooms will be stored for a long time without losing their taste and aroma.

If the room in which the mushrooms will be located is sufficiently dry and well-ventilated, you can string them on a string, wrap them with clean gauze and hang them. In this state, dried mushrooms can be stored for more than one year; however, over time, they will still begin to lose their taste.

If during storage the mushrooms for some reason suddenly become wet, they should be immediately sorted out and dried.

Drying is the ideal way to harvest forest mushrooms. Firstly, the most natural taste and rich mushroom aroma are preserved, secondly, on hot summer days, you do not need to spend a lot of time at the hot stove, and thirdly, space in the freezer and jars with lids for other types of preservation are saved. For a long time I have already answered the question of how it is most convenient to dry mushrooms at home. In the oven, of course. It is both fast and reliable. Again, the ideal method for those who have not purchased a special dryer unit, which takes up half an apartment and is used two weeks a year. How to properly dry mushrooms in the oven, I will show using the example of boletus, which we brought from the forest a whole basket. Beautiful, even, strong, it was even a pity to cut them into slices, but it would still not be possible to dry such large mushrooms entirely. And there is no point in this. Just a handful of dried whites is enough to make a whole pot of aromatic soup or to make a saucepan of mushroom sauce for buckwheat.

You will need:

• good quality mushrooms, ideally porcini.

How to properly dry mushrooms at home

The mushrooms should be dense, without wormholes. Mushrooms brought from the forest, collected away from roads and tracks, need to be sorted out, large debris, leaves, twigs, sticks and grass blades removed. Cut off the bottom of the legs, the "root", without regret. The mushrooms themselves will need to be cleaned with a small knife. Since you cannot wash the mushrooms before drying, because they will absorb moisture like a sponge, then spend maximum effort and time to carefully scrape off or cut off with a thin layer of dirt, dents and sand.

Cut the peeled mushrooms into random pieces. Thin plates will dry faster, thick ones a little longer. It is desirable that the pieces are approximately the same size, so that there are not very large and very small.

Arrange the mushrooms in one layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. It is desirable that the slices do not touch.

Put in a slightly open oven and dry at 40 degrees until light ringing. This process can take about 6-8 hours. Dried mushroom slices should break easily and become light, almost weightless.

As for the storage of mushrooms, there are recommendations to store them in linen or paper bags. There is also an unusual method - roll up a jar of dried mushrooms like a regular canning. In any case, the mushrooms should be checked periodically to ensure that no insects or mold can grow in them. And if something happens, have time to dry the workpiece a little more.

Drying mushrooms is the best way to preserve the best that mushrooms give us. If you want to enjoy this wonderful product all year round, then drying is ideal for this purpose.

Mushrooms are a valuable source of protein, iodine, iron, potassium, phosphorus, zinc and vitamins D, C, PP.

It is important to note that only tubular mushrooms and some lamellar mushrooms can be dried (russula and dung beetles, for example, are not suitable for drying). Mushrooms with milky juice are not dried, as they have a very sharp and bitter taste.

For drying, they usually take champignons, boletus, boletus, autumn mushrooms, aspen mushrooms, mushrooms, boletus and chanterelles.

Mushrooms are harvested for drying in sunny, dry weather.

Before drying, you need to clear the mushrooms from debris and earth. It is not recommended to wash them: most of the valuable substances and aroma will go away with water, the mushrooms will darken and may turn sour. You can wash already dried mushrooms.

Large mushrooms should be cut into quarters or halves. Cut the large legs into 1 cm strips. For small and medium-sized mushrooms, separate the cap from the legs and dry whole. It is not necessary to cut and separate very small mushrooms - they are dried entirely. You can also cut all the mushrooms into strips (if there are a lot of mushrooms and you don't want to mess around with them for a long time) - in this case, it will proceed much faster. Mushrooms are best cut lengthwise.

You can also subdivide the mushrooms by type or size for easier drying.

For drying mushrooms in the oven you need to prepare a baking sheet. Spread the peeled and cut mushrooms on a baking sheet, lightly greasing it with oil. Baking paper is also placed on the baking sheet, then oil is not needed. You can put the mushrooms not on a baking sheet, but on a wire rack. In this case, you will need baking paper to place on the wire rack and arrange the mushrooms.

The mushrooms must be laid out so that the caps are facing up, and there is a little space between the mushrooms (1 mm).

Another way to conduct drying mushrooms in the oven - drying on needles. If you decide to use knitting needles to dry mushrooms, you will need wooden knitting needles that match the width of the oven. The ends of the knitting needles need to be sharpened and mushrooms strung on them. When the knitting needles are completely filled, they need to be placed in the oven so that the ends lie on the horizontal ribs of the oven side walls.

If the oven does not have special ventilation holes, you must leave the door ajar. If there is a fan, turn it on.

At the beginning of drying, set a low temperature - about 50 ° C. The initial stage of drying mushrooms should proceed at a low temperature, because if the temperature is immediately high, white droplets will appear on the mushrooms - protein substances, the mushrooms will darken. As soon as you notice the droplets, the temperature should be lowered and the mushrooms removed from the oven.

After about 1.5-2 hours, the temperature is increased to 70-80 ° C. At this temperature, the mushrooms must be dried for about 2 more hours, after which the temperature in the oven is again lowered to 55 ° C and the mushrooms are dried for another 2 hours.

During the drying process, remember to stir the mushrooms occasionally.

Dry mushrooms must be selected, the rest must be dried.

It's hard to tell how long it takes drying mushrooms in the oven, since the drying time for each mushroom is different.

When dried, about 76% of the water is evaporated from the mushrooms.

If the mushrooms are not completely dry in the oven, they can be dried in the air or indoors.

Whether the mushroom is dry is easy to check - you need to break the cap. If the inside of the mushroom is wet, it has not yet dried out and drying must be continued.

Dried mushrooms are convenient and easy to store. They are stored for a long time and do not lose their taste and aroma.

You can store dried mushrooms at any temperature, in a dark place. It is good to store mushrooms in glass jars, clay pots, tin, wooden and plastic boxes designed for storing food. Do not seal the container with dried mushrooms. You can just tighten with foil. Dried mushrooms are also stored in bags, but moths can start there.

What a pleasure it is to wander through the morning forest among young birches in search of strong boletus mushrooms! If you're lucky, you can have a full basket for lunch, and you need only 5-6 pieces to make soup, no more. And how to preserve the mushroom harvest?

Preparing mushrooms for processing

Mushrooms are a very valuable and healthy product, rich in protein and microelements. Dishes made from them are an integral part of the national Russian cuisine; they can be found in almost all cuisines of the world. Since this is a perishable product, people have long invented many ways to store it.

For storage and harvesting of boletus boletus, they can be processed in the following ways:

• Dry;
• Freeze;
• Marinate.

The main rule when processing any mushrooms is that processing must be done as soon as they brought home. If you postpone this activity even until the next morning, you can lose the whole "catch".

First of all, boletus must be cleaned of adhering leaves, grass, carefully scraped off the rest of the earth from the legs. Wormy mushrooms should not be processed. If you store boletus boletus in a dried form, in this case you do not need to wash them with water. If you are going to freeze or pickle them, then wash them with cold water and dry them slightly, spreading them out on a kitchen towel.

How to dry boletus mushrooms at home

Mushrooms are dried in the oven or electric dryer; this can be done by stringing the pieces onto threads. When using the oven, the prepared strong boletus are laid out on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Small representatives are put whole, and large ones are cut into pieces about 4-5 cm in size. You need to dry the mushrooms in the oven with the door open, at low heat. The oven temperature should be around 50 ° C.

You cannot put a baking sheet with blanks in a hot oven, you must not allow the mushrooms to cook. The drying time in the oven depends on the size of the pieces. The larger they are, the more time it takes. It is very simple to determine readiness: they are dried to a solid state, after which they are folded into paper or linen bags and put away for storage. If you use an electric dryer, then carefully read the instructions and follow its instructions.

Another good way to harvest dried boletus boletus is to make garlands on strings out of them and hang them in a sunny place. The threads are chosen from ordinary bobbin, thick ones. Cut the thread of the required length, thread it into a sewing needle, and tie a match to the end of the thread instead of a knot in the middle - this will be a barrier-stop so that the pieces do not slip. Each prepared piece is carefully pierced with a needle and advanced along the thread, forming a "garland". Dry the mushrooms on strings until they are firm. This usually takes anywhere from two weeks to 1 month, depending on the weather.

To make dried boletus boletus aromatic and tasty, they must not be overdried. Therefore, when cutting them into pieces, you need to try to keep them the same size. When mushrooms are dried in the oven, you need to remove the dried pieces in time.

Storing frozen mushrooms

Not only dried, but also frozen boletus preserves all the useful and nutritious elements. It is possible to freeze mushrooms only after primary heat treatment: boiling, frying. This is due to the fact that mushrooms, like a sponge, collect toxic substances and harmful microelements from the environment, and you can get rid of them only with the help of high temperature. You can boil them either until half cooked, for this it is necessary that they boil for 10-15 minutes, or until fully cooked, in which case boiling boletus should be at least 40 minutes.

The choice of pretreatment depends on how you plan to cook the defrosted food.

If boletus mushrooms go to soup or any other complex dish, it is better to choose pre-boiled mushrooms. If you plan to simply overcook them with onions, then you can use pre-fried mushrooms. It is very simple to prepare fried mushrooms for freezing: you need to fry them until cooked in vegetable or butter.