It is important for fans of honey mushrooms to preserve the harvest of mushrooms for the winter. The way out is to dry them. Dried honey mushrooms retain nutritional value and taste. There are several ways to dry mushrooms at home.
Methods for making dried mushrooms
Preparation for drying
Regardless of the selected technology for drying mushrooms for the winter at home, they should initially be properly prepared. In preparation:
- they are selected according to their degree of maturity, choosing small and strong, because the amount of nutrients in young fungi is greater than in overgrown ones
- reject, separating rotten and affected by worms,
- cut off, because for drying usually only mushroom caps are used, removing the legs, departing 2 cm, the smallest are dried whole.
During the drying process, mushrooms lose about 90% of their weight. Of 10 kg of raw mushrooms, the yield of dried mushrooms is about 1.5 kg.
In order to avoid excess moisture accumulation, the specimens selected for drying are not soaked, the contaminants are removed with a damp cloth. Pre-soak the mushrooms is not required.
Thread drying
To dry mushrooms on a thread, you need to pick up twine or a strong thread, which also fits fishing line. The process includes simple manipulations:
- prepared mushrooms are strung on a thread of the desired length, leaving a distance of 0.5-1 cm between them to ensure sufficient air circulation and uniform drying,
- threads with strung mushrooms are pulled in a place with sufficient sunlight and good ventilation: on a balcony loggia, behind a window, above a stove,
- to prevent dust and insects from entering, cover with a dry gauze cloth.
Mushrooms are removed for subsequent storage after 7 days. Drying mushrooms on a string is permissible in well-established warm and sunny weather.
Oven drying
Dry mushrooms at home is also permissible in the oven, spread out on a wire rack or baking sheet. The disadvantage of this method of harvesting dried mushrooms for the winter is the need for periodic mixing of mushrooms so that they do not burn. With this method:
- the mushrooms are laid out in an even layer and put in the oven for 2-3 hours at a temperature of 40 ° C-50 ° C, at a lower mushrooms are cooked, at a higher - baked,
- when the adhesive layer dries on mushroom caps, the temperature in the oven is increased to 75 ° C, in ovens with a convection function, this mode is switched on to provide air circulation, in the absence of such a function air is circulated through the open oven door,
- periodically turn the mushrooms so that they are not fried.
Depending on the thickness of the layer and the number of mushrooms, the drying time in the oven varies from 7 to 12 hours. Readiness is determined by easy fragility without crumbling.
Microwave drying
Mushrooms are easy to dry
The microwave drying method is used when it is required to dry a small amount of mushrooms:
- spread the mushrooms on a flat plate and put in the microwave, setting the power to 100-180 W and setting the timer for 20 minutes,
- after the lapse of time, the resulting liquid is drained, the microwave oven is ventilated to dry the moisture that has appeared,
- the number of approaches is repeated until complete drying.
Mushrooms ready for storage become flexible, with no characteristic traces of moisture on the mushroom cap.
Drying in an electric dryer
An electric dryer is the best device for drying mushrooms for the winter at home. Modern technology is equipped with tiers with gratings, which provide optimal conditions for high-quality drying, maintain the required thermal regime and air circulation.
The optimum temperature at which the honey agarics of small sizes can be dried in an electric dryer is 55 ° С.
Drying time - 2 hours.
Additional drying
The need for additional drying occurs during storage. In order for mushrooms to remain usable during the winter, they are dried up and stored for storage away from esters, vegetables and fruits, because mushrooms have hygroscopic properties and accumulate moisture and odors.
During storage, the product is inspected, deteriorated specimens are selected. The surviving are sent for half an hour to the oven, heated to 60 ° C.
The shelf life of dried mushrooms is 1 year.
In order not to dry mushrooms again, suitable containers for storage are tightly closed containers made of glass, ceramics and tin. In rare cases, paper or fabric bags are used, since such containers are often the medium for the appearance of food moths and bugs.
Conclusion
There are several ways to dry mushrooms at home for the winter. This can be done on a string, in an oven, microwave or electric dryer, after sorting the mushrooms and selecting strong specimens.
Dried mushrooms must be properly stored so that they are suitable for cooking and do not require repeated heat treatment, for which they are put in lockable glass, ceramic or tin containers.
