How to freeze fresh honey mushrooms at home

Mushrooms

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Kira Stoletova

Preparing mushrooms for the winter involves not only pickling, but also freezing. Freezing fresh honey mushrooms has many advantages. Collected fruiting bodies with this storage method do not lose their taste and beneficial properties even after a long stay at a temperature of -18°C.

Freezing honey mushrooms

Preparing mushrooms before freezing

Honey mushrooms are one of the best types of mushrooms to store in the freezer. Their size is small and the flesh is dense. After defrosting, the consistency of the product will not change much. Store-bought mushrooms can be frozen without the need for pre-processing. If mushrooms are collected in the forest, some features of obtaining preparations must be taken into account.

Having found the mycelium, they carefully clear the place where the mycelium grows and cut off the fruiting bodies with a clean, sharp knife. After the cut aromatic mushrooms are in the hands of a person, they are cleaned of dirt and placed in a basket with the cap down.

Before harvesting it is important:

Select fruiting bodies of small or medium size. Large mushrooms are rarely used: they are less susceptible to freezing.
Use only whole fruiting bodies. Rotten and damaged mushrooms are discarded.
Rinse the product under running water (optional).

There are several ways to freeze at home. Both raw mushrooms and those that have undergone preliminary heat treatment are frozen.

When preparing fresh mushrooms, a kind of fork arises: for sanitary purposes, it is recommended to wash the mushrooms before freezing, but for culinary purposes, it is not. And all because, after washing under water, the fruiting bodies are saturated with moisture, and this negatively affects the storage of the product in the freezer.

How to boil honey mushrooms for freezing?

Many people do not trust mushrooms that have not been cooked. And although many housewives calmly store honey mushrooms in the freezer freshly frozen, most still prefer to boil them first.

The most incredulous cooks boil honey mushrooms twice: the first time they wait until it boils and cook for about twenty minutes, and then they change the water, add salt to it and put the mushrooms in boiling water for another 10-15 minutes. Most people boil honey mushrooms once; the cooking time after boiling is 15-20 minutes. Some believe that these mushrooms should be boiled in a small amount of water (1 cup per 5-6 liter pan), no more than 10 minutes, with the addition of salt and bay leaf. And this broth is subsequently frozen and used to make soups and sauces.

Based on the fact that honey mushrooms are suitable for freezing and fresh, the cooking process is presented as a method for more compact storage of mushrooms: after heat treatment, they release a lot of water and lose a lot in volume.

Freezing raw product

You can freeze honey mushrooms raw. All you need to do is prepare a large cutting board and make room for it in the freezer.

The fruiting bodies are evenly laid out on the board in one layer. They are then frozen raw. After 2-3 hours, when the mycelium has hardened, it is transferred to a plastic bag for further storage. Advice. If you are afraid that the mushrooms laid out on the cutting board will freeze to it, cover it with plastic and then arrange the mushrooms.

How to properly preserve at home

To prevent mushrooms from absorbing foreign odors, they should be stored in a sealed container. The best way to preserve mushrooms is to put them in the refrigerator or freezer.

In a refrigerator

The refrigerator is a universal storage for raw, cooked and canned mushrooms.

Fresh

Conditions for storing raw mushrooms:

after cleaning, they are placed in a glass jar and tightly closed with a lid;
shelf life at 7-10 degrees - 12-17 hours;
Fungi can be stored for 3-4 days at 0…+5 degrees;
Enameled dishes, a paper bag, and cotton fabric are suitable as containers.

If you store mushroom stock for longer than the specified period, it will become stained and dry out. Polyethylene is a poor wrapper for mushrooms because it traps air.

Boiled

Boiled mushrooms are placed in an enamel pan, plastic containers, glass jars. They will last 2-3 days on the bottom shelf.

Freezing blanched mushrooms

You can freeze honey mushrooms not only fresh, but also treated with hot water.

To carry out blanching, you need to prepare 2 pans, a colander, a slotted spoon and paper towels. Cold water is poured into one of the containers, and a saline solution (20 g of salt per 1 liter of water) is poured into the other.

Following actions:

Place the pan with brine on the fire and bring to a boil.
Honey mushrooms are placed in a boiling saline solution. They are boiled in it for no longer than 3 minutes.
Using a slotted spoon, the product is removed from the brine and placed in cold water (shock treatment).
After the operation, the future preparation for the winter is laid out in a colander, allowing the water to drain completely.
Dry the mushrooms on a paper towel, spreading them out in one layer.

To freeze honey mushrooms for the winter, the dried product is placed in plastic bags or in special containers for storing food. To properly freeze honey mushrooms, you need to divide the blanched mushrooms into small parts in order to use the created reserves if necessary.

Irina Selyutina (Biologist):
Experienced chefs are convinced that blanching of honey mushrooms, like other mushrooms, can be done if you plan to use them in the future for soups or mushroom caviar. For other recipes, in their opinion, including for frying, it is better not to blanch honey mushrooms - the shape of the mushrooms may be deformed.

You cannot defrost one large portion several times. After the second defrosting, the fruiting bodies will become soft and change shape and color.

Are honey mushrooms frozen for the winter?

Honey mushrooms, like many other products, are perfectly stored frozen. They have a dense structure, are not too watery and can be kept at sub-zero temperatures for about 12 months. This way they will retain their natural smell, taste and nutritional elements. And what’s especially nice is that this method of long-term storage requires much less effort than, say, traditional pickling. In addition, pickled mushrooms cannot be added to all dishes due to the strong spices, while frozen ones are perfect for soup, julienne, and pie.

Freezing boiled mushrooms

You can freeze boiled mushrooms

Some housewives prefer to boil mushrooms before placing them in the freezer. The cooking and freezing procedure has its own characteristics. The fruiting bodies are washed and then thrown into cold water. Further actions with fresh honey mushrooms look like this:

Place the pan with mushrooms on the fire.
Bring to a boil.
The water is drained. Mushrooms are poured into a colander.
New water is boiled and the product is poured back into the hot water.

Boil the mushrooms for 40-50 minutes. After cooking, boiled honey mushrooms are placed in a colander to drain excess liquid. Then they are placed on a paper towel. When the boiled mushrooms have cooled and dried, they are frozen.

Additional recommendations

Thus, the form in which the mushrooms were placed in the cold and the factor of temperature values are taken into account. They only need to be defrosted before cooking. They cannot be re-frozen. Don't pack too much into one bag. Small batches at a time are the most acceptable quantity when placed in one container.

It is also advisable to consider the following tips.

When cooking, defrosting is not necessary; it can be done directly in a pan of boiling water.
Now that it is clear how long our frozen mushrooms can be stored in the freezer, you should write down the date they were placed there in advance. This will eliminate the possibility of dangerous consumption of stale food.
Stored mushrooms absorb all the flavors. It is recommended to keep them separate from other foods.
Species with a spongy cap (butterfly, white) are recommended to be frozen only fresh, since when cooked, the taste is lost and the structure becomes watery.
Cutting large specimens helps save space.

Freezing stewed mushrooms

You can freeze honey mushrooms for the winter even after the preliminary stewing procedure. After such treatment, the product will not lose its taste and aroma. Cooking time for harvested fruit bodies when boiling, frying, etc. will decrease.

The extinguishing procedure is simple.

What to do with fresh mushrooms:

Honey mushrooms are placed in a clean hot frying pan (fat is not used).
The fruits are salted and covered with a lid.
The fruits are stewed in their own juice for 25-30 minutes.

After the mushrooms have cooled, they are carefully placed in plastic or glass containers for freezing. You can also freeze the harvested harvest in the forest after preliminary stewing in the oven. The product is simmered on a baking sheet at a temperature of +180°C for 20-25 minutes. The main thing is to prevent the juice from completely evaporating. If necessary, add boiled water to the tray.

Recipe for salad from boiled frozen mushrooms

Ingredients:

1 boiled chicken breast;
1 boiled carrot;
1 cup boiled beans;
250 grams of frozen honey mushrooms (boiled);
1 small onion;
mayonnaise and salt to taste.

Preparation:

Boil all the listed products in advance, except for onions and honey mushrooms (they were already boiled before freezing). Thaw the mushrooms completely at room temperature, and rinse the boiled beans. Cut the peeled onion into small cubes and scald with boiling water to soften its taste. Squeeze out excess liquid with your hands. Rinse the thawed honey mushrooms and let them dry by placing them in a colander. Peel the boiled carrots and grate them. Cut the chicken breast into small cubes, removing the bones. Mix all the salad ingredients, add salt to taste and season with mayonnaise. Very tasty, and most importantly - satisfying.

Here's another great recipe. This time we will prepare the first course with frozen boiled honey mushrooms. More precisely, potato soup.

Freezing fried mushrooms

You can freeze honey mushrooms at home and roast them. Before heat treatment, it is important to rinse them properly and dry them on a paper towel. Fry over low heat with a little fat. It is better to use sunflower oil for these purposes.

Honey mushrooms are fried for no more than 20 minutes, stirring constantly. In the allotted time, the juice released from the fruiting bodies should evaporate.

Irina Selyutina (Biologist):
Fried mushrooms, placed in a container for freezing, are filled with the fat in which they were fried, and only then the product is completely frozen. When freezing mushrooms in this way, you need to use them within 3-4 months, because... further storage will lead to their loss of taste. When defrosting, you need to be prepared for the fact that your workpiece will look like a homogeneous mass. By the way. The same applies to stewed and boiled honey mushrooms.

Only after this is the product cooled to room temperature and stored in the freezer.

How to properly use frozen mushrooms

Pre-defrosting of frozen mushrooms is not required. From the freezer, previously boiled or fried honey mushrooms are sent directly to the soup or frying pan. But with raw frozen honey mushrooms you will have to tinker: you will need to pre-boil them, after which they will be ready to create masterpieces of mushroom cooking.

Carefully collected, well-cleaned honey mushrooms, if properly frozen and used, will give a special taste and aroma to both simple and gourmet dishes at any time of the year.

Pre-cleaning of mushrooms in the forest

Before you bring the collected honey mushrooms home and begin processing and preparing them, you need to go through a preparatory stage - clean them in the forest, in the same clearing where they were collected. This, of course, increases the time for picking mushrooms, but it’s worth it - at home you won’t need to do such “dirty work” by spreading newspapers on the floor and placing buckets and basins around the house; there is much more space for this in the forest. So what should you do?

Honey mushrooms grow in large families

Carefully sort through the mushrooms, remove badly broken, old or wormy ones from the basket (if the mushroom looks neat on the outside, but it seemed suspicious to us, break the cap in half and check for worms). Using a sharp mushroom knife, which we used when cutting off the mushroom stems, we remove the remaining soil and sand from the mushrooms (usually they are on the lower part of the stems, which can be trimmed), as well as adhered leaves, dry pine needles, small twigs and other things we don’t need. garbage. We cut off parts of the mushroom stems and caps eaten by insects and be sure to throw them away (some mushroom pickers neglect this, although this is an important step).

It is necessary to remove adhering blades of grass and leaves from honey mushroom caps.

Sometimes the question arises - what to do with the wavy collar on the stem of a mushroom? It is not necessary to remove it - here you should be guided by your desires; its presence or absence does not affect the taste of ready-made pickled, boiled or fried honey mushrooms.

Under the caps of mushrooms there is a skirt - a delicate film that can be left or removed

Usually honey mushrooms grow in whole families on stumps and tree trunks, on dead wood, and only sometimes on the ground, so there is not a lot of debris and dirt on them, so preliminary cleaning of mushrooms in the forest will not take much time.

If we were talking about other mushrooms, then we would need to remove the mucous film on the cap, but honey mushrooms do not have it, so it is much easier to prepare them for home processing.

It is known that mushroom caps are much meatier and more nutritious than their stems, therefore, if forest clearings are rich in honey mushrooms, you can collect only mushroom caps, then you will not have to waste time cleaning the stems. Also, this will not harm the mycelium, and next year there will be the same number of mushrooms or even more in this place.

Honey mushrooms - where do they grow and when to collect?

Beginners who find themselves in the forest for the first time are overcome by a feeling of confusion, which is much easier to cope with if you have basic information about mushrooms. Knowing how to collect honey mushrooms, you will be able to save time when processing them, and save yourself from the need to once again sort through the mushroom mass and cut off the excess.

Honey mushrooms fully justify their name and grow on old stumps or very rarely on old trees or at their base.
This mushroom species is common in deciduous forests and is practically never found in coniferous forests.
When collecting mushrooms, preference should be given to medium-sized young specimens, cutting them off along with the stems, slightly higher from the mycelium.
In large overgrown mushrooms, only the caps are tasty, and the legs are hard and a little rubbery in taste.

Is it possible to freeze mushrooms without cooking?

To freeze mushrooms, you should choose young and firm mushrooms so that after defrosting the mushroom continues to hold its shape. Solid ones are best suited for this role. If the mushrooms go into the freezer without processing (frying or boiling), it is not necessary to wash them. It is enough to remove visible debris, dirt and leaves from its surface.

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Answers to frequently asked questions

Honey mushrooms turned black during cooking, what does this mean?

Honey mushrooms begin to turn black even before cooking, during cleaning. This is a natural oxidation reaction of mushrooms in air. Nothing wrong with that.

How to identify false honey mushrooms during cooking?

It's better to play it safe and do it before cooking. It is worth paying attention to the cap and stem of the mushroom. The genuine ones have a cap covered with small scales, while the false ones have a smooth cap. But there is one caveat. Old honey mushrooms also have a smooth cap.

To avoid mistakes, pay attention to its color. An unnatural, too bright color of the cap is a sign of a false mushroom. The original leg has a “ring”. During any heat treatment, the false fungus gives off a moldy smell. The real ones have their own natural mushroom aroma.

How much salt should I add when cooking honey mushrooms?

It is recommended to add half a tablespoon of salt to 1 liter of water.

Why do honey mushrooms turn yellow when cooked, what does this mean?

If the fruiting bodies acquire a yellowish tint during cooking, this is not a clear sign of false mushrooms. It is worth paying attention to their legs and smell. The real ones have a characteristic “ring” on the stem, and the smell when cooked is mushroomy and rich. Most often, summer honey mushrooms acquire this color when cooked. It is worth remembering that in addition to this, the color is influenced by the collection location and soil.

What is the smell of honey mushrooms?

The true smell can only be felt as a result of heat treatment without adding spices. The aroma is buttery, mushroomy and very rich.

If you cook false honey fungus, what happens?

You can distinguish false fruiting bodies from real ones during cooking. Before cooking, you should pay attention to the appearance of the mushroom.

If you didn’t overlook it, and there was a suspicious mushroom on your plate, it’s not worth the risk, especially for inexperienced mushroom pickers.

It is worth eating only those that do not cause any suspicion. False ones have a bitter taste, but it is dangerous to taste them.

How to preserve the color of mushrooms?

To preserve the natural yellow-brown color, you need to add vinegar or lemon juice to previously prepared salted water. For 2 liters of water, it is enough to squeeze a quarter of a lemon.

How many times do honey mushrooms boil?

On average, mushrooms lose 2/3 of their volume when cooked. And during frying, you can clearly observe how the accumulated liquid evaporates.

Should honey mushrooms be soaked?

It is worth relying on the appearance of the mushrooms. There is no need to soak young and clean mushrooms. Simply peel them, rinse them under cold water and boil them.

If the appearance of the fruiting bodies indicates that they may be wormy, in this case the honey mushrooms should be soaked before heat treatment.

Is it necessary to boil honey mushrooms before frying them?

In order not to lose the rich taste and smell of honey mushrooms and to avoid health problems after consumption, it is recommended to boil them in salted water before frying for about 10 minutes. Frying without cooking is not recommended.

How to check honey mushrooms for edibility?

Before checking, you should pay attention to the following details:

Hat. In real mushrooms it is covered with small scales, in false mushrooms it is smooth.
Leg. The original leg has a “ring”.
The smell is mushroomy and rich. When cooking false fruiting bodies, it is difficult not to smell the smell of mold and rot.

How to clean honey mushrooms?

For cleaning, use a well-sharpened knife and a small soft brush.

Cleaning is carried out as follows:

Visually inspect the mushrooms for rot. If there are any places, carefully cut them off. Also be sure to remove the base of the leg.
Use a previously prepared brush to walk along the leg of the honey mushroom so that no small grains of sand remain.
Remove the film under the cap. This can be done by carefully prying it with the tip of a knife.
After the procedures, rinse with cold running water and cut. You can cut them the way you like, but usually this is done in strips.

Is it possible to fry honey mushrooms without boiling?

You can do without cooking only if the mushrooms were collected far from the roadway. Do not forget that fruiting bodies can absorb dirt and harmful components. It’s better not to risk it and spend an extra few minutes boiling them.

Purposes of boiling honey mushrooms

Mushrooms are boiled for several purposes:

Removal of toxins in mushrooms of the conditionally edible group by digestion.
Process and soften before frying.
Prepare for pickling or salting.
Prepare for freezing for the winter.

Before cooking, select a pan that is suitable for the volume of mushrooms you have. It should not be too small, otherwise the honey mushrooms will be undercooked or, conversely, burnt, or too large - this will complicate the correct selection of the volume of ingredients. It is best to use a regular enamel pan.