Storage conditions
It is important to know that when preparing salted mushrooms, special storage conditions must be taken into account. Otherwise, this can lead to disastrous consequences - not only damage to the product, but also health problems.
Temperature
For good preservation of mushrooms, the temperature in the cellar or refrigerator should be from +2°C to +5°C. If not maintained, it will lead to product deterioration. So, at temperatures below 0 °C, the mushrooms will freeze and crumble. Above +6°C, pickles will begin to deteriorate and turn sour.
It is necessary to ensure that the basement in which the salted mushrooms will be located is well ventilated. And some craftsmen store salted mushrooms on the balcony in winter. In this case, the balcony or loggia must be glazed. To prevent the mushrooms on the balcony from freezing, you can use improvised means to insulate them. For example, take a wooden or cardboard box and put a blanket in it. This way, the jars of mushrooms will be warm and will not freeze.
Required sterility
At home, it is better to store salted mushrooms in glass jars. If you keep them in metal containers, you need to make sure that the metal from which the dishes are made does not oxidize. It is important to remember that before placing mushrooms in any container, you need to take care of its cleanliness.
How long can you store homemade pickled mushrooms?
So, the pan needs to be washed and doused with boiling water, then dried, and the jars need to be sterilized. Here is one way: wash the jar thoroughly with detergent, then place it over a boiling kettle for 2-3 minutes, then remove it with a towel or thermal gloves. The sterilization process is complete.
If you do not take these recommendations into account, then all your preparation efforts will be in vain. Dirty dishes will definitely lead to spoilage of salted mushrooms, even if the temperature storage conditions are met.
Ingredient ratio
This is an important point for high-quality and long-term storage of mushrooms. It is necessary to maintain the proportions of salt and water. Of course, in excessively salty brine, mushrooms will be stored better and longer, but will become completely unsuitable for consumption. If the brine is not salted enough, this will lead to a fermentation process and the product will become sour.
For each type of mushroom, there are certain proportions of salt per 1 kg of product. For example, when cold salting mushrooms such as tremors, russula and milk mushrooms, 45 grams of salt are required per 1 kg of product. For hot salting, 60 grams of salt per 1 kg of mushrooms is enough.
Other subtleties
When storing salted mushrooms in glass jars or other containers, do not cover them with plastic or cling film. If the temperature is above 0 °C, this will lead to evaporation of liquid from the brine. In mushrooms that are not in brine, due to the accumulation of moisture under the lid or improvised plug, yeast fungi will multiply.
You also need to know how to preserve salted mushrooms from mold. To do this, during the salting period, you should shake or shift them once a week to create conditions for the movement of the brine. In this case, the mushrooms should be completely covered with liquid.
How to tell if champignons have gone bad
How to store ready-made salted milk mushrooms in glass jars in the refrigerator
Salted and pickled mushrooms are stored in glass jars, enamel buckets, wooden tubs or stainless steel tanks. Before storing ready-made salted milk mushrooms, you need to prepare a container suitable for this. In enameled buckets, you should check the strength of the enamel: old buckets with damaged enamel are not suitable for storing mushrooms. Tinned and galvanized buckets are absolutely unsuitable: their top layer dissolves under the influence of acids (mushroom liquid) and forms toxic compounds. Before storing salted milk mushrooms in glass jars, it would be useful to know that canned food should be hidden from constant exposure to sunlight. You can lower them into the basement for this. So, the article further talks about how to store milk mushrooms in the refrigerator, and you can also find out about the shelf life of this preservation.
Types of salting
In addition to storage methods, there are also several types of mushroom pickling: cold and hot.
Cold pickling occurs by soaking mushrooms in brine for several days. Hot salting involves boiling the product in brine. Lamellar mushrooms are mainly suitable for pickling: milk mushrooms, russula, honey mushrooms, honey mushrooms, etc. After a “quiet hunt,” the mushrooms need to be cleaned of dirt and washed thoroughly under warm water. And some types require soaking to get rid of bitterness. This is done within 3 days, for large specimens - up to 5 days.
Salted saffron milk caps
Ingredients:
- 500 grams of saffron milk caps;
- 20 grams of salt;
- currant leaves 10 grams;
- bay leaf;
- allspice;
- 5 grams of ground red pepper.
Preparation
- Place the peeled saffron milk caps on a sieve or colander. Scald them several times with boiling water and immediately after that pour water into which ice cubes were previously thrown. Then place the product on a paper towel and let it dry.
- Place bay leaf and pepper mixed with currant leaves at the bottom of a glass jar. Distribute the saffron milk caps evenly, sprinkling each layer with salt and pepper.
- Cover with a cotton cloth soaked in vodka, place a wooden or plastic circle, and place a mug filled with water on it.
- The product will be ready after 35 days of salting.
Salted champignons
For those who don’t like picking mushrooms or are simply worried that they might end up with inedible specimens (but they still want to eat mushrooms), a trip to the nearest vegetable store is required, where you can buy champignons and prepare such an appetizer.
You will need:
- 3 kg of champignons;
- 350 g onions;
- 200 g hot chili pepper;
- 200 g salt;
- vegetable oil;
- spices to taste.
How to preserve the harvested champignons? Let's look at the main storage methods
Preparation:
- Remove the top layer from each champignon cap, rinse thoroughly and wait until the water drains. Place them in a bowl and sprinkle with salt, mix everything thoroughly.
- Peel the onions and chili peppers and cut into rings.
- Place the ingredients in sterilized jars in the following order: onion-pepper-champignons. It is imperative that the final layer be champignons.
- Fill the workpiece with oil. If desired, add spices to taste and seal the jar.
- All you have to do is marinate the appetizer for a week, and you’re ready to eat.
Canned (marinated) mushrooms
I wash the mushrooms several times, put them in a saucepan, add just a little water (mushrooms give up a lot of their liquid during cooking) and put the mushrooms on the fire. I cook until it boils, if I am satisfied with the broth in which the mushrooms were cooked (it is clean, not cloudy, without floating blades of grass), then I leave it and add salt and seasonings. If the broth is in doubt, then I put the mushrooms in a colander and rinse them. Then I put it in the pan again, fill it with water, add salt and seasonings and cook for some more time. It’s difficult to say the exact time - the mushrooms are different and the cooking time is the same. But you need to start from the fact that when the mushrooms sink to the bottom of the pan, they are almost ready and after that you need to boil them for another 10 minutes. 5 minutes before the end of cooking, add vinegar and you can place the mushrooms in sterile jars, top with the marinade in which they were cooked and roll up. Wrap the jars in something warm until they cool completely. Mushrooms are immediately ready to eat, but they also store well all year round. Ready mushrooms are served to the table, adding garlic or onions and watering with vegetable oil. Mushrooms themselves are a tasty product and you don’t need to add a lot of seasonings and other spices.
Now is the time to pick mushrooms. Mushrooms are salted and pickled. Choose mushrooms carefully; immediately discard any mushroom you don’t recognize. And if your quiet hunt was successful, prepare delicious snacks for the winter. I want to bring to your attention a few recipes.
Cooking tips
To store salted mushrooms at home for a long time, you should know certain culinary subtleties. After all, if prepared incorrectly, this product can quickly deteriorate.
Method one
- After salting, the liquid must be drained.
- Dry the mushrooms on a paper towel and place in portions in a plastic bag or cling film.
- Then place the preparations in the freezer. The product will not lose its taste even after long-term storage. After defrosting, the mushrooms can be eaten immediately.
Method two
- After the mushrooms are pickled, they must be washed thoroughly.
- Boil fresh brine. Place mushrooms in it and boil for 2-3 minutes.
- Place them in a pre-sterilized jar and pour in hot brine.
- Roll up and let sit in brine for about 7 days in the refrigerator.
- Then drain the liquid and pour vegetable oil over the prepared mushrooms. Thanks to the oil, the product will not mold and spoil.
- Before eating mushrooms, the oil must be drained.
Method three
- After salting, place the mushrooms in glass jars.
- Press them down with your hand so that all the air comes out. This is necessary for long-term storage, since due to the voids in the jar, fungus will form, which will lead to damage to the workpiece. The mushrooms should reach the top of the jar.
- Take a container, pour vodka and wet a cotton cloth with it (it is very important that the cloth has a diameter twice as large as the volume of the jar).
- Place this fabric on top of the product, and use wooden sticks placed crosswise over the shoulders of a can, for example, from an ice cream container, to create pressure.
- The brine should extend above the mushrooms, covering them by 1.5 cm. If it is not enough, add brine (30 grams of salt per 1 liter of water).
- Close the jar with a tight plastic lid. Its sides must first be soaked in vodka.
- Shelf life - up to 1 year.
How to soak dried mushrooms for soup
Brine recipe
Place a pan on the stove and pour 1 liter of water into it. Then add 30 grams of salt and 60 grams of sugar and stir until completely dissolved. Then add ground pepper, bay leaf, cloves and dill seeds to taste. When the liquid boils, remove from heat and cool. The brine is ready.
How to make brine
If the brine is made without observing the required proportions of ingredients, the shelf life of salted mushrooms can be significantly reduced. An insufficient amount of salt will cause souring and fermentation processes. Also, you don't need to add it in too much quantity. It will, of course, extend the shelf life of salted mushrooms, but then no one will be able to eat them.
To play it safe, you need to adhere to the exact proportions of water and salt specified in time-tested recipes.
If the mushrooms are directly in the brine, you need to stir them at least once every few days. This is necessary so that they are salted evenly.
It is important to know!
There are many recipes for mushroom pickling. However, it must be remembered that if the preparation process is incorrect, botulinum toxin may be produced in canned food. It is very important that during cooking all the key points of processing and sterilization of food and utensils are observed. The use of salt and vinegar in pickled mushrooms helps to partially neutralize the activity of these bacteria, and when pickling, only salt acts as a neutralizer.
During harvesting, the mushroom must be cut off just above the base, since there are many bacteria in the ground that are dangerous to humans. Cleaning of the product must occur on the day of collection. This process should not be put off until tomorrow.
When hot pickling, mushrooms must be boiled for up to 40 minutes. The date of manufacture should be written on each closed jar to ensure that the product is not stored longer than expected. It is not advisable to buy mushroom products from unknown people. By following these tips, you don't have to worry about your health.
Recipes for salted milk mushrooms in jars for the winter
There are two options for pickling mushrooms:
To understand which method you like best, you need to try both. Let's consider them.
Cold way
- 10 liter bucket of milk mushrooms;
- 400 g salt;
- 12 cloves of garlic;
- 20 g bay leaf;
- 20 g black peppercorns;
- 10 dill umbrellas;
- 20 currant leaves.
Before cooking, you need to soak the milk mushrooms for two days, using the method described above.
- The largest fruits are cut into pieces.
- Place in layers in an enamel bucket or pan: mushrooms, 2 tbsp. spoons of salt, cloves of garlic, currant leaves, bay leaf. Everything is sprinkled with peppercorns. Layers are made until the mushrooms are gone. Umbrellas of dill are placed on top.
- Cover the container with mushrooms with a smaller lid, place a weight on top and leave for 5-7 days. During this time, the mushrooms will release juice. They must be stored in a cool, dark room.
- After this time, place the mushrooms in sterilized jars , pour in juice and roll up. The sterilization process can be carried out over steam, in the microwave, or in the oven.
It’s a simple recipe, but thanks to it the milk mushrooms will have a great taste and become very crispy, just what you need for the winter
- Sterilize the jars in advance (over steam, in the microwave, in the oven, as convenient).
- Place mushrooms in them in layers and sprinkle each layer with salt and spices, carefully tamping with a wooden masher.
- Cover with a loose lid and place in the refrigerator.
- They need to be compacted periodically. It would be better to put down oppression.
- In 1-15 months the mushrooms will be ready. If suddenly they turn out to be too salty, you can soak them in cold water.
Hot way
For this method you will need:
- 5 kg of mushrooms;
- 10 bay leaves;
- 15 currant leaves;
- 15 cloves of garlic;
- 5 liters of water;
- 10-15 tbsp. spoons of salt;
- dill, horseradish
- The mushrooms are prepared and soaked. The legs need to be cut off; they are not salted.
- You need to make a brine: add salt to the water, bring to a boil and add mushrooms.
- Boil the milk mushrooms for 30 minutes, constantly skimming off the foam.
- Drain in a colander and rinse under running water.
- Pour salt into the bottom of an enamel container, lay out a layer of mushrooms, placing them with their caps down. The layer thickness should be 5 cm. Sprinkle them with salt, dill, chopped garlic cloves and grated horseradish.
- Continue until you run out of ingredients.
- Cover with a lid and place a weight on top.
- Leave for several days in a dark place so that the milk mushrooms release their juice.
- Pickled mushrooms are placed in sterilized jars, filled with juice and rolled up.
As in the previous recipe, you can put the mushrooms in prepared jars under a press and leave them in the refrigerator for 30-40 days.
