Serushka (aka seryatka, putik, gray milky mushroom) is a very common type of mushroom and grows almost throughout the country. It is valued for its nutritional and beneficial properties. It has a long harvest period, which begins in July and lasts almost until October, when the growth of other mushrooms is almost over.
Salting of earrings recipe | How to salt serushki
In order to prepare salted earrings, you need to use a cold salting method with preliminary soaking.
Therefore, now we will find out how to salt earrings for the winter in this way. Cold canning is longer than hot canning and takes about 1.5-2 months. But in this case, the serushka mushrooms turn out to be hard, and when chewed they will have a pleasant crunch, and the serushkas are stored very well. How to salt earrings for the winter in a cold way
- Before salting the earrings, it is necessary to remove the bitterness from them. To do this, the earrings should be soaked in clean water and changed several times. Mushrooms should be soaked in a cool place. Serushki need to be soaked for 5 hours to 24 hours. The recommended amount of salt for cold pickling of mushrooms is 3.5-4.5% by weight of mushrooms. When the caps of the earrings no longer break, but instead bend, then soaking can be stopped.
- By the way, you can salt earrings in an enamel or glass container with a fairly wide “neck” so that you can place a circle with a load there. Although, of course, it is best to use tubs or barrels made of hardwood for these purposes.
- Barrels in which cherushki have already been cold-salted must be washed with warm water using brushes, and then soaked for 10–15 days, changing the water every 3 days, and then steamed with soda ash or juniper.
- Cold-soaked earrings should be laid with their caps down in layers of 5-6 cm, and each layer should be sprinkled with salt and spices. It is recommended to cover the bottom of the vessel and the top layer of mushrooms with a large layer of salt. After 2-3 days, you can add a new batch of earrings to the container and repeat this operation in a cold way until the mass stops settling and the container is filled as much as possible. Then the container is topped up with 6% salt solution, after which it is sealed for the winter.
- You can also put blackcurrant leaves, horseradish leaves, cherry leaves, and dill stems at the bottom of the dish to salt the earrings. But the bottom still needs to be sprinkled with salt first. Each layer of earrings can also be sprinkled with garlic and bay leaves.
- If mold suddenly appears, the fabric in the container needs to be changed and the load washed. Usually salted serushki are ready in 30-40 days.
Growing
There are three ways to grow bitterlings at home.
In the garden
To do this, you need to purchase ready-made mycelium in a specialized store or prepare planting material yourself from freshly picked mushrooms.
Take the caps of the fruiting bodies (8-10 pieces), separate them from the stems, fill them with water and leave them to infuse for a day. The next day, knead them with your hands into a paste (you can rub them through a fine sieve), and mix the mushroom solution thoroughly.
In the garden, select a suitable place near birch, pine or oak trees, where bitters usually grow in nature - near the trees with which they form mycorrhizae. Remove the top layer of soil up to 20-25-30 cm thick. Purchased or homemade mycelium is mixed with a pre-prepared substrate, which includes straw, deciduous tree bark or compost.
Lay it in a thick layer - 4-5 cm, sprinkle it with garden soil on top and water it.
Further care consists of periodically moistening the soil and, if necessary, sheltering from sunlight to avoid drying out of the mycelium.
If everything is done correctly, you will receive the first harvest next year in July. The lifespan of the mycelium directly depends on the lifespan of the tree chosen for its planting.
In room
You can grow bitters not only outdoors, but also indoors - a barn or basement.
To do this, it is necessary to provide certain growth conditions:
- stable temperature within 20-21°C;
- humidity at 70-75%;
- good ventilation;
- daylight.
While the fertility of other mushrooms depends on weather conditions, bittersweet mushroom can be found at any time in season. The name speaks for itself and it has a bitter taste, which is why it is classified as a conditionally edible species. Therefore, before eating it, it is thermally treated. By the way, it is used very often in cooking and will be a good alternative to other mushrooms. Photos and descriptions of bitters are presented below.
Selection and preparation of ingredients
Home-made pickling of mushrooms may differ in the methods of their preparation, but there are general principles that should not be neglected - preliminary heat treatment of the mushrooms, the ability to combine all the mushrooms intended for pickling in one container, the mandatory use of sterile wooden, glass, porcelain or enamel dishes with a wide throat for oppression and air access , exceptional freshness and preliminary cleaning of mushroom raw materials.
Whether you use spices or not is up to you. Experienced mushroom pickers do not add spices at all , but in traditional recipes you can often find small quantities of black currant leaves, laurel and horseradish leaves, garlic, dill, allspice, cumin or cloves, in non-traditional recipes even cinnamon and barberry.
Boletuses marinated for the winter
In my opinion, boletuses marinated in this way are the most delicious. Therefore, let’s look at the recipe using their example.
In our area, boletuses are affectionately called redheads, because of their peculiarity. Most of their hats are red, but with rare exceptions there are also white ones. They are very beautiful, elastic, strong. In the jar they always retain their shape and never become sour.
What a joy it is to find these beautiful, delicious-smelling mushrooms. Every time you find another handsome man with a red hat, you are filled with joy and satisfaction.
They should be pickled in the same way as boletus mushrooms. The only difference is that they should be boiled not for 20, but for 30 - 40 minutes. These forest representatives have a very dense texture, and therefore require a little more time for heat treatment.
Redheads should also be cleaned dry, and the stem should be cleaned. This should also be done for preventive purposes so that bacterial spores do not get into the workpiece.
Boletuses have another distinctive feature. The cap at the bottom and the leg have a dark color when cleaned and processed. This is quite normal, this is a feature of this species. Therefore, if only the caps of boletuses were dark when pickling, here all parts turn out dark.
Because of this, redheads should be boiled separately from all other varieties so that others do not darken. The foam, which must also be carefully removed, will also be very dark.
After boiling, drain the water. And we act in the same way as in the previous description. That is, the process of adding accompanying spices, the process of preservation and sterilization itself is exactly the same as in the recipe above.
Proceed according to the same scheme, without any changes.
All the ingredients are exactly the same, and the marinating process is no different from the method already described above.
Methods for salting earrings
Traditionally, two types of pickling are used: hot and cold . Salting mushrooms using a hot method is justified if it is not possible to soak mushrooms for a long time or you need to process a large amount - this is an accelerated method.
Fermentation of lactic acid bacteria during the pickling process will add brightness to the taste, while the spices will better saturate the mushrooms and add elasticity and a specific aroma to them. On top of everything else, this is the simplest, most delicious and familiar way to pickle earrings.
Chanterelles (butterfish) pickled for the winter
Chanterelles are good because they practically do not need to be peeled. They are always clean and tidy. You just need to clean the leaves and needles from them and that’s it. It is not necessary to wash them.
In addition, chanterelles are not affected by worms at all, and this is their huge advantage over all other mushrooms.
But today’s recipe we will look at using butter as an example. There is a lot of fuss with them, and there are some cleaning features. Therefore, it is better to tell about them. And if you still cook chanterelles, then simply substitute the word butter instead of chanterelles and that’s it.
It is better to take small size oils for preservation and carefully inspect them when cleaning. Butterfly is a delicate and very tasty mushroom, and it is loved not only by people, but also by worms. But you must admit, you don’t want to eat them with worms!
But everyone who has dealt with boletus knows that when you collect them and examine each of them, you don’t see any worms. But by the time you get them home, and by the time you start cleaning them, they appear out of nowhere, even in the smallest lubricants.
Basically, their spread begins from the stem. Therefore, when collecting in the forest, it is better to immediately cut off the stem, leaving only a small stump no more than 2 cm.
Another peculiarity is that the buttermilk has to remove the film from the cap. For pickled mushrooms, this is a must. Since we are collecting small specimens, we will have to tinker. This takes quite a lot of time.
So I start cleaning them in the car while we are driving back home. Since the drive takes an hour and a half, I already have time to clean some parts. And when I arrive home, I immediately put the butter in the refrigerator. There, worms, if they exist, will no longer spread.
You can clean the film in the same way as the legs, lightly scraping the cap with a knife. Or use it to hook the end of the film and remove it entirely, if possible. The leg, if it is dark, should also be lightly cleaned. But in general, you can part with the leg without regret. The most delicious part is, of course, the hat.
Some housewives immerse the butter in boiling water for a few minutes to make the film easier to remove. But I don't practice this method. I always brush dry.
To prevent the mushrooms from darkening and so that there is not even a hint of worms left in them, put them in cold salted water. If by chance we weren't looking, salt water will do the trick. In addition, we remember that a salty environment will protect us from harmful bacillus.
They should be kept in it for 10 minutes, no more. The cap has a spongy texture and absorbs a lot of water. And it’s important for us to preserve the natural taste and not let it become watery.
When all the mushrooms have been cleaned, we also boil them in lightly salted water. Since they are very small and tender, they should be boiled for no more than 20 minutes. During cooking, the caps may change their color to pinkish-lilac. It's okay, this is also a feature of cooking butter.
Chanterelles also darken slightly during cooking, but only slightly. And marinated - they turn out very beautiful. They like to add them whole to various salads, as well as decorate them.
And this is a photo of boiled butter. Do you see how the color of the cap has changed?
After boiling them and draining the water, put them in a jar with dill and spices. They should not be compacted either. Pour in brine and sterilize for the same amount of time as the boletus and aspen mushrooms were pickled. Do not forget to complete all the preliminary procedures described in the first recipe.
Don't forget to also add vinegar essence.
Marinated boletus can be considered a real delicacy. Due to the length of collection and cleaning, few people want to bother with them, because you collect them all, no larger than 5-7 centimeters in diameter, and carefully select them. Therefore, a jar opened in winter is always especially appreciated!
And of course, its main value is in taste. Marinated boletus always turns out with a pleasant, delicate taste. And until you eat the whole jar, it’s impossible to stop.
Cold pickling of mushrooms
Mushrooms that do not need to be boiled first are salted in this way - milk mushrooms, russula, saffron milk caps. The mushrooms are sorted, cleaned and the stem is cut off at a distance of 2 cm from the cap, washed well, placed in a clean container, and filled with clean salted water (1 teaspoon of salt per 1 liter). The water is changed every 10-12 hours. Mushrooms are soaked to get rid of the bitter milky juice that is present in them: mushrooms - 2-3 days, milk mushrooms and podgruzdi - 3-5 days, bitter mushrooms for at least 7-8 days.
With the cold salting method, mushrooms are soaked in water for 2 to 8 days.
The soaked mushrooms are placed with their caps down in a barrel (or pan) that has been cleanly washed and scalded with boiling water to the very edges in layers of 6-7 cm, sprinkling each with table salt. Spices are placed at the bottom of the container, in the middle of the mass and on top: bay leaf, garlic, cloves, allspice, dill, etc. And a cleanly washed and scalded wooden grate or lid is placed on top and pressed down with pressure.
How to quickly pickle russula under pressure
Pressure is just one of the tricks for preparing russula in a quick way.
- To speed up the process, experienced mushroom pickers advise using hot pickling, the recipe for which I introduced at the beginning. But do not put the seasonings at the bottom of the jar, but pour them over the mushrooms. Then, instead of two weeks to receive a ready-made snack, it will take only 4-6 days.
- Another quick version of salting is known, which uses boiled russula. Drain the broth, place the mushrooms in a frying pan in hot oil. Add your favorite seasonings, salt, and pour in a couple of large tablespoons of table vinegar. You can try the snack right away.
Russula pickles are prepared by adding various herbs and seasonings. Traditionally, garlic, several types of pepper, and dill are added. There are unusual additives: juniper, cloves, bird cherry, ginger, tarragon (tarragon), cumin, mint, cilantro, hot chili. A wide variety of greens: horseradish, currants, oak, cherry leaves, rarely, but there are recipes with fern leaves. See one of these unusual options below.
Dry pickling of mushrooms
Dry mushrooms are prepared in this way; they are not washed first, but only wiped with a cloth. Then the mushrooms are placed in a container (pan, jar or barrel), sprinkling each layer with salt, and pressed down with pressure. Spices and seasonings are not used with this method of salting. One caveat - in this way you can only salt saffron milk caps and saffron milk caps, which do not release the characteristic bitter juice. Dry-salted mushrooms can be eaten within 7-10 days.
Whatever method of pickling mushrooms you choose, store the pickles at a temperature of 5-6°C. At lower temperatures, the mushrooms will be frozen, become brittle and tasteless, and when the temperature rises, they can become moldy and spoil. And remember that when storing mushrooms in glass containers, they should be closed only with plastic lids, but in no case with metal ones, otherwise pathogens of such a dangerous disease as botulism may develop in the jars. Salt mushrooms correctly and enjoy their excellent taste all winter long!
Sources:
https://www.owoman.ru/cook/solim_serushki.html https://fermer.blog/bok/recepty-i-zagotovki/13291-kak-zasolit-serushki-vkusno-i-bystro.html https:// www.ogorod.ru/ru/eda/advices/4683/Kak-pravilno-solit-griby.htm
Features of storing workpieces
The types of blanks in question can be stored for 12 months at temperatures from +1°C to +6°C. If there are not too many pickles, they can be placed in the refrigerator on the top or middle shelf.
Did you know? Not all countries classify mushrooms in the same way regarding edibility. For example, in Italy, boletus is considered poisonous, and in Germany, russula, while in Russia both of these representatives are quite popular and are actively used in cooking.
The taste of salted boletus mushrooms will not leave anyone indifferent. This is an excellent snack for strong alcoholic drinks and an excellent addition to boiled potatoes or meat dishes. It is best to serve it seasoned with chopped onions and vegetable oil.
Secrets of cooking at home
The following secrets will help you when salting travelers:
- Using a toothbrush is more convenient to clean mushrooms from various debris and leaves that often stick to the cap. The main thing is not to put too much pressure on the mushrooms so that they don’t start to crumble.
- When soaking, you must ensure that the marinade completely covers the earrings. Otherwise, they will become covered with mold and it will be difficult to wash it off.
- For pickling, it is better to use enamel dishes, glass jars, and wooden barrels. But it’s better not to take dishes made of clay - the salt will corrode the top layer of the material, as a result of which elements hazardous to health can get into the brine.
Serushki are excellent mushrooms for pickling and pickling. However, it is important to remember the need for careful preparation and soaking. This will remove harmful substances from travelers and avoid poisoning.
