How to boil milk mushrooms
In autumn, it’s time to salt mushrooms, first of all - milk mushrooms. Most often they are salted hot. With such salting, the most crucial stage is the boiling of the mushrooms.
How to boil milk mushrooms
In addition, it is necessary to cook real, that is, white milk mushrooms before frying them.
What are these mushrooms
Milk mushrooms are edible mushrooms of the Russula family. The scientific name is "real milk mushroom", and there are many popular names: white, wet, damp, pravsky.
It can be not only salted, but also fried. It is not very common, it forms mycorrhiza with birch.
However, there are many very similar, conditionally edible, species that grow not at all near birches. Among them: yellow, aspen, pepper and others. It is not recommended to fry them, but you can salt them for the winter.
Many people do not distinguish between individual species, so it is often possible to find on sale in one basket, along with an edible real milk mushroom, conditionally edible, very similar in appearance. Therefore, not being a specialist mycologist, it is better to process and prepare all specimens as is customary for conditionally edible mushrooms.
Blank methods
There are 2 ways to prepare for the winter:
- cold salting;
- hot salting.
Hot salting is a more reliable method for conditionally edible mushrooms in general, including mushrooms.
Heat treatment will destroy not only microorganisms, but also denature proteins (disrupt the structure of their macromolecules) in the pulp of the mushroom, so boiled mushrooms are guaranteed to lose the unpleasant smell and taste of bitterness. In addition, they turn out to be soft, but at the same time they do not lose their shape.
Salting dishes
The following types of containers are suitable:
- wooden barrel;
- glass container (jar) with a wide neck;
- spacious ceramic food pot;
- enameled, without coating defects - chips, pan.
It is important that milk mushrooms are salted in a cold way under pressure and with good air supply, as cabbage is usually salted, because under these conditions, anaerobic microorganisms (botulism sticks) do not multiply.
Irina Selyutina (Biologist):
Before proceeding with the cold method of pickling milk mushrooms, you need to really assess all the risks if you did not pick mushrooms yourself, but simply bought them on the market. Therefore, it is better to refuse such an option, but to use blank options based on heat treatment of the original product.
If salted in a hot way, it is necessary to choose the dishes so that they can be placed in a cold place. If such a place is a refrigerator, a wooden barrel is unlikely to work: it is better to stock up on a wide-necked glass jar.
The dishes, including the lids for it, must be well washed and sterilized.
Mushroom preparation
Before cooking, mushrooms must be peeled
Preparing milk mushrooms for decoction is a long and rather laborious process. It includes:
- manual cleaning of each specimen from visible lumps of earth, blades of grass, and other foreign particles (old, as well as damaged mushrooms, touched by worms, are not suitable for salting);
- soaking in cold water in a spacious container (basin, bath) for several hours (preferably for a day), and the water must be changed periodically;
- thorough rinsing of each mushroom in clean water (some even recommend using a toothbrush for this purpose);
- removal of long legs;
- large caps can (but not necessarily) be cut into slices.
With prolonged soaking, the milk mushrooms may darken. This is usually due to the fact that they are not completely submerged in water. Therefore, the mushrooms must be rinsed and re-soaked in new water. But put a load on top so that all of them are under a layer of water.
Ingredients and their quantity
For each kilogram of milk mushrooms, you need to take:
- 60 g of non-iodized coarse salt;
- 3 dill umbrellas;
- 10-15 black currant leaves;
- 4-5 cloves of garlic;
- 1-2 pcs. bay leaf;
- 10-15 peas of black pepper.
Attention! Dill, garlic, bay leaves and currant leaves should be well washed and scalded with boiling water.
Cooking
Heat the water in a saucepan, put 2 tbsp. l. salt, and then gently transfer the prepared mushrooms into the water. Bring to a boil and simmer with a good boil for 20 minutes. It is necessary to withstand exactly the time in order to achieve good sterilization and, at the same time, not to digest the mushrooms until their natural structure is lost.
The foam formed during cooking should be removed with a spoon.
After 20 minutes, the mushrooms are discarded in a colander. Salt water (brine) is retained.
Similarly, white milk mushrooms are prepared for frying: they are also soaked for a long time, then boiled for the same time. Only if cooking before salting pursues 2 goals (to remove bitterness and odor and sterilize the mushroom mass), then before frying it is necessary to achieve the disappearance of bitterness.
Irina Selyutina (Biologist):
- When boiling mushrooms, so much water should be poured into the pan so that the mushrooms float in it freely and do not interfere (squeeze) each other. This can only be achieved by boiling in several passes or using several pots.
- It is easy to determine the readiness of the boiled milk mushrooms: they sink to the bottom of the pan when shaken.
- Traditionally, the most delicious are the preparations made from milk mushrooms, where the mushrooms have virtually no legs (1-1.5 cm remains). But you do not need to throw away the remains of the legs: they will make excellent mushroom caviar.
Modern housewives, in contrast to those who led the household in the 50s. prefers to preserve milk mushrooms hot. You can store such workpieces at a temperature of about + 20 ℃, i.e. practically at room temperature. But even in this case, the shelf life of the mushrooms should not exceed 6 months.
Subsequent stages of hot salting
Milk mushrooms are placed in sterilized dishes in rows, placing the caps in one direction so that a dense packing is obtained. The rows are evenly shifted with prepared spices, and they are also sprinkled with an additional amount (pinches) of salt for better sterilization of the mushroom mass.
Attention! The retained brine is brought to a boil again: i.e. it must be boiled 2 times.
The milk mushrooms placed in a jar are carefully poured with boiling brine to the very top of the dishes, even pouring through it to remove all possible air. A plastic cover is put on top.
Consider. Banks cannot be rolled up! This is dangerous when it comes to mushrooms, especially conditionally edible ones.
After cooling, jars should be stored only in a cold place: in the basement or in the refrigerator.
Conclusion
There is no need to rush to try salting: let the allotted time pass ̶ at least 1.5 months. The mushroom mass will be well salted, additional fermentation will take place in it, and if, unfortunately, the salting deteriorates, then signs of spoilage will become visually noticeable. Unfortunately, rinsing will not help ̶ the spoiled salting will have to be thrown away.
However, if the mushrooms have been carefully processed, properly boiled and kept in the cold, salted milk mushrooms will turn out to be tasty and safe.
