Drying is considered the best way to harvest mushrooms. Dry honey mushrooms do not lose their taste. They are fragrant. Dishes made from them are healthier for humans than prepared in another way: pickling, canning or salted. You need to know how to properly dry mushrooms at home and preserve the beneficial properties of a valuable protein product.
The specifics of drying mushrooms
The harvested autumn harvest of mushrooms must be prepared. The process is simple, but you still need to know how to properly prepare them in order to get quality raw materials in dried form.
The preparatory stage consists of the following points:
- Be sure to sort out the crop and re-sort. If wormy mushrooms or false mushrooms accidentally fall into the basket, they are thrown out. It is better to get rid of old overgrown specimens.
- Clean the cut honey mushrooms from dirt and debris using a damp cloth. If a lot of mushrooms are collected, the cloth is periodically washed with water.
- Separate the caps from the legs with a knife. To prepare mushrooms for the winter, hats are often used.
- If desired, you can dry the legs. For this purpose, the legs are cut into small pieces 2-3 cm long. For rapid evaporation of moisture, the legs are cut lengthwise.
Important! Honey mushrooms are not washed before drying, so as not to saturate them with excess moisture and not to delay the drying process.
Dried honey agaric legs become firm. Therefore, it is better to turn them into powder by grinding in a blender or coffee grinder. You will get mushroom powder. It is fragrant and gives the first and second courses an amazing piquancy.
Drying methods for honey agaric
When dried honey agarics are used in different ways. To do this, use from household appliances:
- oven;
- microwave;
- electric dryer;
- airfryer;
- Russian stove.
In addition, it is dried on a string and over a stove.
Drying in the oven
Drying mushrooms in the oven is not easy. The process is long and requires attention. It is necessary to ensure that the mushrooms are not baked in the process.
The drying process is as follows:
- Turn on the oven and preheat it to 45 ° C.
- Arrange the prepared mushrooms on a wire rack or on a baking sheet in one layer.
- Place the mushrooms in the oven for 4.5 hours to evaporate the moisture.
- Keep the oven door ajar to allow steam to escape.
- Raise the oven temperature to 80 ° C.
- Dry until tender with the door ajar, stirring occasionally.
- Check often the readiness of honey agarics. The dried mushroom is elastic and bends easily, but does not break. Retains color and aroma.
Advice! If the oven is equipped with a convection function, the door is not opened.
Microwave drying
Residents of modern apartments can carry out this procedure in the microwave. The process is not very convenient and requires constant monitoring. The product yield is small. Before being loaded into the microwave, the mushrooms are slightly dried in the sun. In rainy weather, an additional lamp is used.
Slightly dried mushrooms are placed in a microwave oven, having previously spread them on a dish in one layer. Readiness is checked as follows: crush a larger mushroom with your fingers. When juice appears, the drying procedure is repeated. If the mushrooms are not dried beforehand, a lot of liquid is released. The liquid must be drained, the set mode must be changed. This is very inconvenient and requires a lot of attention.
Drying in dryer
A good way to harvest honey mushrooms for the winter is to dry them in an electric dryer. Prepare mushrooms - sort, peel, separate the legs from the caps, cut large specimens into pieces. Drying can be done in a VOLTERA 1000 Lux dryer.
Prepared mushrooms are evenly distributed in one layer on the grates, put them one on top of the other and turn on the device. Dry for about 6 hours at a temperature of 50aboutC. The instructions for the dryer describe in detail the drying process of various products, you need to read the instructions.
Drying on a thread
They still use the old way - honey mushrooms are dried on a string. The method is very simple and cost-effective.
You need to have on hand:
- an ordinary sewing needle;
- thick thread or fishing line.
It is necessary to ensure that there is a gap between them for better ventilation. The strung ones are placed in the sun. They are heated by the sun's rays. The wind should blow them.
You can use the balcony. Build a rectangular rack frame with stretched threads and put it on the windowsill. This will increase the drying time. Depends on weather, humidity and air temperature. You can do it in a week.
In rainy weather, mushrooms are brought into the room so as not to deteriorate. Protect from flies and insects with gauze.
In the Russian oven
To dry it in a Russian oven, it is heated well. The coals are raked out, the pipe is closed with a view, the mouth is covered with a damper. After 2-3 hours, the oven is completely cleaned.
Procurement is as follows:
- Mushroom raw materials are laid out on trays, baking sheets with hats to the bottom. Bricks are placed in the oven, baking trays with mushrooms are placed on them to avoid contact with the hot hearth.
- The mouth of the furnace is closed with a damper, leaving a finger-wide slot for air circulation.
- The mushrooms are mixed periodically.
- It takes more than 8-16 hours to dry. If the mushrooms are large, sometimes it is necessary to additionally dry them at the next fire.
- So that there is no excess brittleness, the mushrooms pulled out of the oven are covered with gauze and allowed to settle.
In the airfryer
The drying process in the airfryer is fast. So that humid air can escape, a skewer is inserted into the body of the device under the lid. The speed is set high, dried for about 1.5 hours at a temperature in the range of 60-70 ° C.
Over the stove
The method of drying over the stove is as follows:
- Prepare the mushrooms and string them on the fishing line.
- Install above the stove at a height of 70-100 cm.
- Light the cooking zones.
- For three days, the burners work, and honey mushrooms are dried. They do not cook so that they are not saturated with foreign smells.
This method is not convenient. It is used on rare occasions. Regardless of the method of drying honey agarics, a tasty product is obtained that is not inferior to fresh raw materials.
For storage of dried raw materials, fabric bags, paper bags or glass jars are used. Store in a ventilated area. When created in good conditions, they can be stored for 3 years without losing their taste and useful properties. Dried mushrooms diversify any dish: salads, soup and main course, sauce and caviar. They will be delicious filling for pastries and dumplings. We also suggest reading how to make vegetable chips at home.