Drying of mushrooms
Drying mushrooms is one of the simplest and most accessible ways of processing mushrooms.
Dried mushrooms are very well preserved and do not lose their taste and aroma, and in terms of their nutritional properties and digestibility, dried mushrooms surpass salted and pickled mushrooms.
The following types of mushrooms are most suitable for drying at home:
Tubular:
1) white;
2) forearm;
3) Bottoms;
4) oil;
5) moss;
6) goats.
Marsupied:
1) white truffle;
2) a navy cap;
3) morels.
Treads:
1) branched branched;
2) the tinder is variegated;
3) fungus-ram.
Plate:
1) honeycomb;
2) fungus umbrella variegated;
4) champignon;
5) the concubine;
6) scaly pile;
7) Deer fungus.
Chanterelles:
1) chanterelles common.
You should know that not all edible mushrooms can be dried. Many plate mushrooms contain bitterness, which does not disappear when dried.
Mushrooms can be dried not only outdoors, but also in a Russian oven, in the oven, on a gas stove. Dry mushrooms in the air can only be in hot, dry, sunny and clear days.
If the window is overcast and damp, it is not recommended to dry mushrooms in the open air, as they can quickly deteriorate.
The best way to dry mushrooms is drying in a Russian oven, in an oven and not a stove.
Before starting to dry the mushrooms, they should be sorted and selected only fresh, strong, healthy mushrooms that are not affected by worms.
All selected mushrooms are recommended to wipe with a slightly damp, clean cloth and sort them by size.
Do not wash mushrooms intended for drying, as they can absorb a lot of water, they will slowly dry out and subsequently deteriorate.
To ensure that the mushrooms are not contaminated during the drying process, it is desirable to dry out in special devices: various sieves, grilles, wickerwork, and also to thread mushrooms into threads or studs, which must first be installed on special racks and on the spokes of the mushroom dryer.
Drying in the Russian oven
All mushrooms prepared for drying should be spread out with their caps down on the sieves, pleating or stringing on knitting needles( Fig.).
Loaded devices for drying mushrooms must be placed in the oven only when the temperature in it after the furnace is reduced to 60-70 ° C.If the temperature is higher than the specified temperature, do not start drying, as the probability is high that mushrooms can be fried or fumed, and also burn. At a lower temperature, the mushrooms in the oven dry quite slowly, therefore, they can sour and spoil.
Before loading the mushrooms, the bottom of the oven should be swept so that no ash remains on it. In addition, at the time of drying from the oven you need to clean all dishes with food or water.
If the grill or wicker for drying mushrooms does not have legs, then it is necessary to place bricks under it. This is necessary to ensure that the fungus does not come into contact with the hearth furnace. In this case, it is better to place bricks on the edge.
During drying it is required to ensure the evaporation of moisture released from the fungi. In order for the moisture to evaporate, the flap must be placed on two bricks, leaving a gap between them for the intake of air from below.
The upper part of the damper should not close the mouth or the brow of the furnace very tightly so that the moist air is constantly removed.
The oven chimney should be opened for 23 latches at the very beginning of the drying process, however, as the mushrooms dry up, it should be gradually pushed in and closed tightly to the end of the drying.
Mushrooms in the oven will dry unevenly, small ones with small hats will dry up faster, but large ones dry more slowly, so all dried mushrooms need to be cleaned in due time, otherwise they will become not very
tasty and lose their unique aroma. But the undried mushrooms, even with a slight dampness, begin to mold and deteriorate.
Mushrooms can be considered dried if they feel dry, brittle, slightly bent, and break with a little effort.
Well-dried mushrooms, according to their taste and aroma, resemble fresh ones.
The yield of dry mushrooms is about 10% of the weight of raw and purified mushrooms.
In a Russian oven, you can dry tubular, plate mushrooms and trutnovikov. For such a drying technology, morels are not suitable, as they are very quickly steamed, and at the end of drying they burn and lose their nutritional values.
Morel must first be waxed in fresh air or in a well-ventilated area, then they can be threaded or spread out on gratings.
Dried morels should be in the sun, over a hot stove, on the stove or near it. It is with this drying that the morels retain their flavor and nutritional qualities.
Drying in the oven
Before starting to dry the mushrooms in the oven, several grilles should be made in the oven size so that they are installed together with the pan. Grids can be made from a large-mesh wire mesh.
Once the prepared mushrooms are laid out on the grate, it must be placed in an oven, the temperature of which should not exceed 70 ° C.
Dry the mushrooms in the oven with the door ajar. This will ensure a constant air circulation.
Drying on a gas stove
Drying mushrooms on a gas stove can be done with a device invented by engineer A. Lukyanov.
To make it yourself, you need 4 cans of herring.
One bank, which has a bottom cut, will be a coolant, while the other cans should cut both the lid and the bottom, leaving only the rims.
On the sides of the resulting rims, it is necessary to make holes in which need to insert spokes made of wire with a diameter of at least 4 mm. In such drying, you can also use pine or birch larvae.
Before proceeding to drying, mushrooms must be strung on knitting needles. Then on the lighted gas stove, you should install a jar with a bottom, put knitting needles with strung mushrooms on it, and then, alternately, all three rims with mushrooms.
In order for the mushrooms to dry out evenly, the rims should be swapped and the spokes rotated around their axis.
Such a dryer for mushrooms can be made of tin or aluminum( Fig.).
Fig. Drying A. Lukyanov
Storage of dried mushrooms
Dried mushrooms absorb moisture very easily, they are easily moldy and ripen, in addition, dried mushrooms absorb all extraneous smells. For these reasons, dried mushrooms should be stored in a dry, carefully ventilated area in waterproof bags or tightly closed glass jars.
But to use for storing dried mushrooms, tissue pouches do not follow, as mushrooms can be damp in them.