Drying autumn mushrooms: recipes for the winter

To prepare mushrooms for the winter at home, there are several ways: pickling, salting, pickling and freezing. All of them are in great demand and are always appreciated for their taste. However, there is another popular type of mushroom harvesting for the winter.

Today, our article will focus on drying honey agaric. I must say that this option is very easy to prepare. Even a novice hostess will be able to cope with it. Drying honey agarics for the winter will make the preparation in demand for a wide variety of dishes. Soup and mushroom borsch can be made from dried fruit bodies, they can be boiled and fried with potatoes, an excellent sauce for meat dishes, or even marinated before guests arrive.

Do I need to wash mushrooms before drying?

Recipes for drying honey agarics for the winter allow the fruit bodies to preserve all useful substances and nutrients: iron, manganese, potassium, iodine. However, before the drying process, honey mushrooms are pre-treated. It should be said that for drying mushrooms, you should always choose healthy, strong and non-wormy specimens. Next, the mushrooms are cleaned of forest debris, the remnants of grass and leaves are removed from the caps, the lower part of the leg is cut off. Note that it is best to cut with a stainless steel knife blade so that there is no darkening of the incised areas.

Many housewives ask whether it is necessary to wash the mushrooms before drying? Here we note right away that there are different opinions on this matter. However, experienced mushroom pickers advise washing only those mushrooms that will be used for pickling or pickling. Before the drying process, the mushrooms are not washed, since they have the ability to quickly absorb liquid. In the future, this will adversely affect the shelf life, and the mushrooms can quickly deteriorate. It will be enough to simply clean them with a dry sponge and remove forest debris from the hats. But if the dirt is too large, then you should still rinse it under running water, and then lay it out on a towel to remove unnecessary moisture. After the initial preparation, honey mushrooms can begin to dry in several available ways.

The recipe for drying mushrooms in the oven on a baking sheet

Honey mushrooms are usually dried whole, but if these are royal mushrooms or large specimens, then they are cut into pieces. Drying honey agarics at home is carried out in the oven. This method is considered the easiest and most convenient for many housewives.

Drying honey agaric in the oven is carried out on a baking sheet at a temperature of 60-70 ° C. Fruiting bodies are spread in a thin layer on wire racks or trays, the kitchen appliance is heated and mushrooms are placed. The door is left a little ajar to allow evaporation to escape, and there is also free access for air circulation. Drying lasts about 45-48 hours, depending on the size of the honey agarics. To check the finished product, you need to bend a piece of the mushroom, if it bends and breaks easily, the workpiece is ready. Honey mushrooms dried in this way are an unusual element for first and second courses, because they contain trace elements useful for the human body.

Drying process of honey agaric in the dryer

Honey mushrooms can be dried in homemade dryers, which use boxes and free access to drafts. The boxes are made of plywood, and instead of the bottom, grids with cells of no more than 12 mm are installed. The number of boxes should not exceed 8-10 pcs., And the whole structure is placed at a level of 40 cm. The upper part is covered with a lid that will provide shade to the workpiece.

The dryer is located in a draft, however, in order to speed up the drying process of the mushrooms, it is equipped with an air collector. The process of drying honey agaric in the dryer is as follows: the mushrooms are cleaned of sand, grass and leaves, the legs are cut off, laid out in size on the grates in one layer. Due to air circulation throughout the structure, honey agarics are dried. The result of the resulting product depends on weather conditions and drafts. If the weather is sunny outside, then the boxes with mushrooms can be put in the sun for 2-3 hours, which will allow the mushrooms to dry.

The boxes are removed from the dryer quite easily, so it's very easy to see how honey mushrooms are dried. The time for drying honey agaric in the dryer can vary from 1 to 2 weeks. However, you are not required to turn the mushroom nets or remove them periodically.

Drying honey mushrooms in the microwave at home (with video)

In the modern world, almost every kitchen has a microwave. Thanks to this device, you can not only warm up yesterday's pies. Drying honey agaric in the microwave allows the mushrooms not to lose their nutrients. Fruit bodies are cleaned, part of the stem is cut off, placed on a plate and the regulator is set at a power of 100 to 150 W for 20 minutes. After this time, open the microwave door for 10 minutes to ventilate. Thanks to this, the evaporated moisture released by the mushrooms will come out. This ventilation procedure is repeated 4-5 times. It is worth saying that the process of drying mushrooms in the microwave is quite laborious and time-consuming, especially if the oven has a small volume. It is better to harvest honey mushrooms in such conditions if their number does not exceed 3 kg. For large batches, it would be good to use special drying equipment. We offer you to watch a visual video of drying mushrooms carried out at home:

Drying autumn mushrooms in a convection oven

It is common for a conventional gas oven to have one or two bottom burners. Baking takes place on one or more levels on which the baking sheet is placed. In this case, only the bottom is heated, and the top is browned due to convection, that is, the arbitrary movement of hot air in the oven. It is better to use autumn mushrooms for drying, which are the most popular among lovers of mushroom dishes.

Drying honey agarics in a convection oven involves several processes, the first of which is drying.

The oven is heated to 50 ° C and the peeled mushrooms are placed in one layer on a baking sheet for drying. If the temperature is raised higher, the mushrooms begin to release protein droplets, which complicates drying, and this, in turn, will worsen the final quality of the product: honey mushrooms will lose taste, aroma and color. It is worth saying that the convection mode should be turned on together with the oven. However, the door must be kept open throughout the entire process so that there is continuous air circulation. If the door is closed, the mushrooms do not dry out in the oven, but begin to bake.

After drying, the main drying process begins. When the mushrooms stop sticking to your hands, increase the oven temperature to 80 ° C. The temperature is no longer raised so that the aroma, color and taste of honey agaric are not affected. It is impossible to determine the exact drying time, because mushrooms of different sizes dry at different rates. To do this, honey mushrooms are checked by touch, turned over and those that have dried up are removed. The rest of the mushrooms are left in the oven to dry.

Harvesting honey agarics for the winter: drying in a bath

Drying mushrooms in a bath helps to carry out the process in a dry, warm and well-ventilated area. The quality of drying honey agaric will depend on how your bath is heated. The best option would be to dry in an oven with an open damper. Mushrooms should be placed on the heating grate to ensure the flow of dry air and excess moisture is removed from the mushrooms. The main conditions for drying mushrooms at home in the bathhouse remain the same: clean, cut off the legs, do not wash and do not allow contact on the wire rack. With this drying, the mushrooms are dry and light, with pressure they bend slightly, and with strong pressure they break. During the drying process, the water content in the mushrooms is reduced from 80% to 15%, and the aroma is enhanced several times.

Drying honey agarics for the winter in an airfryer

Another popular way of harvesting honey agaric is drying in an airfryer. This option is designed for a small amount of mushrooms. The process is quite simple, but it requires adherence to a certain regime. It runs in a similar way to the traditional method of drying mushrooms. It is imperative to leave an opening between the lid and the working container of the device. In addition, you need to take out the grates with mushrooms several times to cool them down, and then put them back in the airfryer.

Honey mushrooms are prepared in the same way as in all other drying processes: they clean the remains of forest debris with a kitchen sponge, cut off part of the leg. Fruit bodies are laid out on the grills of the airfryer and the drying mode is selected. The advantage of this process is that honey mushrooms do not darken and bake, as in the oven. The whole process of drying the fruit bodies is prepared in streams of hot air. Thanks to the program mode and timer, drying honey agaric in the airfryer is considered convenient and does not take much time. And mushrooms retain their aroma and valuable nutrients. Soups and sauces are made with especially tasty dishes from mushrooms dried in an airfryer.

The recipe for drying honey agarics in e-mail. dryer

The proposed recipe for drying honey agarics in an electric dryer is the best option that saves a lot of your time. In addition, the temperature in the apartment does not rise, and the mushrooms are beautiful and durable.

Drying honey agarics in el. In the dryer, it happens as follows: after preliminary cleaning, honey mushrooms are laid out on special trays and placed in the dryer. Mode III is switched on at 60 ° C, which is intended specifically for drying mushrooms. After 7-10 hours, you get the desired result – an excellent preparation for the winter from dried mushrooms.

If, as a result of any process, the mushrooms are dry, then you can make mushroom powder out of them. Such a product gives the dishes a rich mushroom aroma and taste. In addition, it is very simple to make it: grind mushrooms with a blender and put them in a glass jar or paper bag for storage.