Why should you cook?
If mushrooms are frozen to obtain an almost ready-to-eat product that does not require subsequent lengthy processing, of course, they must be boiled. If they are placed in the freezer in order to subsequently prepare a dish from scratch and obtain a rich broth, then they can be placed raw, subject to very careful preliminary selection, washing and drying.
However, first of all, it is necessary to take care of the safety of mushroom dishes for our health. If the collected fresh mushrooms are dented or damaged, which more often happens with lamellar ones - these are honey mushrooms, chanterelles and others - and the housewife is not confident that they can be sufficiently cleaned of forest debris, sand or soil, they must be cooked without fail. By the way, there is a widespread belief that fresh frozen mushrooms taste bitter in cooked food.
At the same time, let’s clarify how long they remain fresh - no more than a day if stored in the refrigerator; they cannot be stored in a warm room - microbes in the mushroom pulp multiply too quickly.
Preliminary stage
How do you cook fresh wild mushrooms? Initially, you need to carefully select them. The quality of the selection will directly affect not only you, but also your household. It is best to immediately separate real mushrooms from false ones (especially if you did not collect them yourself). Next, we put aside old, rotten and frankly low-quality mushrooms. Such “individuals” are unlikely to survive until winter anyway, and therefore there is no point in spending money on them.
Again, useful advice: if you plan to preserve mushrooms for a long period, then try, when collecting them, to choose only fresh and not rotten specimens. If you cook and eat the old mushroom on the same day, then most likely nothing will happen. However, when frying, freezing and using other methods to extend its shelf life, such a mushroom may not be preserved.
If a picked mushroom has been left without processing for more than twenty-four hours (or knocking), then such a mushroom can already be considered stale. That is, the best advice would be to start cooking and freezing mushrooms exactly on the same day that you picked them.
Some processed mushrooms can even be pickled, depending on the condition of the mushroom. But most of the obscene fungi, especially rotten and wormy ones, will have to be thrown away.
Morels, for example, contain toxic substances. To literally evaporate them from the product, at least cooking will be required. It is after this that they will become tasty and edible.
At the preparatory stage, it is best to thoroughly rinse the mushrooms and drain the dirty water. Only after making sure that our mushrooms are completely clean can you fill them with clean water for further cooking.
How to properly sort?
You understood everything correctly: it is best to sort the mushrooms correctly before cooking. They need to be sorted by variety: white ones separately, boletus mushrooms separately, boletus mushrooms separately, and so on. The more accurately you sort mushrooms by variety, the easier and more productive the process of cooking them before freezing will become for you. After all, different types of mushrooms are suitable for different products, and this takes into account their freshness.
Some will make a juicy mushroom pie, others will be great for mushroom soup, and others will look great pickled as an appetizer. Each housewife chooses the purpose of her mushrooms at her own discretion, but it is still worth sorting them before doing so. Mushroom pickers will especially appreciate the need for this stage.
Also, whether a mushroom belongs to a particular sotra directly affects the process and duration of their cooking. You might think that by boiling mushrooms for an average period of time, they will all cook correctly one way or another. This is an error. The difference between the required cooking time for many varieties of mushrooms is so great that many housewives who did not know about it before will be very surprised.
So, the cooking time for champignons is 5-7 minutes. A little, right? Boletuses have been boiling for about 20 minutes, which is almost four times longer than champignons. The average cooking time for russula is thirty minutes; boletus mushrooms require cooking for as long as forty minutes. Boletus mushrooms are cooked for an average of fifty minutes, and note that this cooking time for each mushroom variety is strikingly different.
We also look at the shape of the mushrooms themselves and their caps. Tubular mushrooms are much less dense than lamellar ones - this directly affects the duration of their cooking, defrosting and cooking. You can even cut it in different ways. For example, honey mushrooms and chanterelles are quite tough mushrooms. It will take more time to boil them to the consistency of soft jelly, and this must be taken into account at the sorting stage.
Many housewives boil only the caps of honey mushrooms for the reason that their legs are too hard both for boiling and for subsequent cooking. In general, legs are again rarely used in the preparation of certain dishes.
The classic recipe for cooking honey mushrooms: this variety is boiled until it boils, then the resulting broth is drained, and then boiled for another hour.
In fact, we can derive a certain rule: the stiffer the mushrooms are in density, the more time it will take to cook them.
After you have cooked all the mushrooms that you planned to freeze, they need to be cooled. They are best cooled on a windowsill or in any other place where the air temperature is below room temperature but above freezing temperature. By putting uncooled mushrooms in the refrigerator, you risk not only damaging the freezing mechanism, but also significantly reducing the shelf life of the mushrooms in it.
It is advisable to divide the mushrooms into several parts and send each of them into bags. Cellophane bags are perfect, but if you have special bags for freezing, which can be found in many supermarkets today, then the best solution would be to place the separated groups of mushrooms in them - this way the product will last a very long time and retain most of the vitamins and other beneficial properties in its structure.
Please note that the maximum shelf life of products varies depending on the type of product itself. This is useful to know if you make extensive supplies for the winter. For mushrooms, the shelf life is 6 months. And this period is calculated taking into account the fact that the mushrooms placed in the refrigerator or freezer have already been boiled and sorted.
Preparing for boiling
How and how long to cook mushrooms before freezing depends primarily on the type: honey mushrooms take longer to cook, mushrooms take less time.
But there are general rules: before starting cooking, mushrooms must be examined very carefully, those of poor quality must be rejected, and the remaining ones must be washed in several waters. Do not wash them under tap or waste water. It is necessary to place them in a container of water for 15 - 20 minutes, while most of the debris remains in the water. This preliminary preparation of mushrooms for their further processing is very important and should be taken with all possible responsibility. It is at this stage that harmful substances are removed - metal salts, traces of petroleum products that could penetrate into the body of the fungus from the soil or from atmospheric precipitation.
General rules for heat treatment
Mushrooms - large ones, cut into slices, and small ones whole - are placed in an enamel bowl, filled with clean water, brought to a boil, this water is drained, poured again and boiled. The second time, it is recommended to salt the water a little; the foam that forms during boiling must be skimmed off. The heat under the pan should be regulated; the water should not boil violently. A sign of readiness is that the mushrooms settle to the bottom of the container in which they were cooked.
At the end of cooking, the duration of which is determined by the type of mushrooms, the water is immediately drained and the mushrooms are placed in a colander. The water should be allowed to drain completely, sometimes this takes at least 60 minutes.
Lamellar mushrooms (honey mushrooms, chanterelles, milk mushrooms) are denser and tougher than tubular mushrooms (ceps, fly mushrooms) and require more time to boil.
How and how much to cook honey mushrooms?
Honey mushrooms need to be boiled for at least 30 minutes, and honey mushrooms should be added to already boiled water.
Before this, it is recommended to separate the mushroom caps from the legs and cook them separately, since the latter are much harder than the caps. The best option is to stop eating legs altogether. It must be borne in mind that honey mushrooms have their poisonous counterparts. False honey mushrooms differ in the color of the plates on the back of the cap: dark gray, black, gray-yellow. The surest sign is the absence of a film ring around the stem and a bitter taste. Good honey mushrooms have a very pleasant smell.
Freezing noble forest gifts
Fleshy tubular mushrooms with dense flesh are best suited for freezing in any form. But boiling or frying boletus, boletus, and boletus mushrooms before putting them in the freezer for storage is the same as spoiling them. When cooked, most of the unique aroma and taste will be lost. Alternatively, they can be dried or baked in the oven to slightly reduce in volume. The caps and legs, cut into pieces of the required size, are laid out on a baking sheet covered with oiled parchment and placed in the oven for 20-30 minutes at a temperature of 150-180 ℃.
Small specimens are usually harvested whole, medium ones are cut into pieces, large ones are cut into thin slices
The best way is still considered to be freezing them raw, which allows you to get the mushrooms at the right time and use them at your discretion: in delicious julienne, rosy pies, rich soups, as a filling for stuffing vegetables and many other recipes.
How and how long to cook porcini mushrooms?
In terms of their taste and nutritional qualities, porcini mushrooms belong to the 1st category of nutritional value. It is no coincidence that they are called noble. Porcini mushrooms must be processed within 10 hours. Boil for 40 minutes, since they have denser flesh than other types. Large porcini mushrooms (caps can reach 12-15 cm in diameter) should be cut into pieces. The remaining broth is saved to be used later for making soups and sauces.
Porcini mushrooms are sometimes mistaken for their poisonous twin, the satanic mushroom. The shape of these mushrooms reproduces the white ones, but differs from them in the red shades of the tubular layer and stem, as well as the watery structure of the cap.
Video recipe for freezing chanterelle mushrooms for the winter
Another good way. Here they need to be pre-fried. It can also be suitable for other mushrooms, but I’ll show you using chanterelles as an example. After whites, they take second place in my soul.
By freezing them using this method, it will be easier for you to put them in the freezer and there will still be plenty of space in it. Watch the video recipe and you will understand the beauty of this recipe.
We will need:
- Chanterelles)
- Plastic bags
I really like making chanterelles in sour cream sauce, and even with boiled potatoes. It will be simply delicious. And they can even be pickled after defrosting. But whoever likes it.
How and how long to cook moss mushrooms?
Moss mushrooms are not among the recognized leaders of taste, such as boletus or white mushrooms, but mushroom pickers never ignore them.
Before processing, it is better to cut large mushrooms into pieces - the flesh will turn slightly blue - add cold water and boil for 20 minutes. False fly mushrooms can also end up in a mushroom picker's basket. It is quite easy to distinguish harmful mushrooms: these mushrooms do not have a characteristic mushroom smell and do not turn blue when cut.
Mushrooms boiled in the mode described above are practically a semi-finished product and are intended for instant dishes. Before freezing, they should be slightly dried and excess moisture removed. To prevent them from sticking together into a lump, it is recommended to initially freeze them using a flat surface, for example, on a baking sheet, and only then place them in bags specially designed for freezing food.
