How to quickly clean honey mushrooms before cooking and pickling: photos, videos of cleaning mushrooms

Many consider honey mushrooms to be the most common forest mushrooms, especially because they grow in large groups.
In addition, they are easy and quick to assemble in one place. Honey mushrooms are even used in medicine because they contain flammulin, a substance that prevents sarcoma. You can prepare a variety of dishes and preparations from them. Honey mushrooms make excellent pickled and salty snacks. These fruiting bodies are also very popular among vegetarians and fasting people. But despite such popularity, the question remains: how to properly clean honey mushrooms? Forest mushrooms grow in deciduous and coniferous forests throughout Russia. Their growing season begins in April and ends in November. The peak period for mushroom picking is September – October. Since these fruiting bodies for the most part do not grow on the ground, but on the trunks of damaged trees or rotten stumps, every mushroom picker knows how to clean honey mushrooms before cooking. The fact is that these fruiting bodies do not have such serious contamination as ordinary mushrooms growing on the ground. Moreover, when collecting honey mushrooms, they are not picked by hand, but cut with a knife, which subsequently reduces the time for cleaning them.

Honey mushrooms, during any cooking process, turn out to be very tasty and retain their nutrients and vitamins. However, to enjoy these delicious and healthy fruiting bodies in any dish, you need to know how to properly peel honey mushrooms. Although each housewife has her own harvesting recipes, we will talk about the nuances of cleaning mushrooms before further processing processes in more detail.

How to properly clean wild mushrooms

[includeme file=”wp-content/plugins/include-me/goog-right.php”]

Compared to other types of mushrooms, honey mushrooms do not require scrupulous cleaning, washing and removal of insect larvae. The main thing that needs to be done before heat treatment, drying or freezing is to sort it out, cut off the long stems and remove rotten areas. It is better not to throw away the legs, but to dry them and grind them into flour to use in winter as an additive to pureed soups or mushroom sauces.

How to properly clean forest mushrooms in order to then prepare a tasty and healthy dish? To prevent fresh forest mushrooms from darkening after being brought from the forest, they must be processed immediately. First of all, the honey mushrooms are sorted out: they throw away those that are very old, rotten and spoiled by worms or insects - such mushrooms cannot be cooked! If only the cap is damaged, then it is thrown away, but the stem is left and vice versa. In addition, adhering forest debris is removed from the caps - remnants of grass, leaves and twigs. We invite you to watch a visual video on how to properly clean honey mushrooms:

Dishes made from fresh mushrooms

You can make a wonderful mushroom soup from honey mushrooms. For this you will need one carrot, 1 onion and 4 medium-sized potatoes. Chop the onion, grate the carrots coarsely, and then fry everything and throw it into the mushroom broth along with diced potatoes. Add salt and seasonings to taste. This soup takes about 20 minutes to cook.

You can also make a salad from boiled mushrooms. To do this, honey mushrooms need to be cut, boiled potatoes in their skins, and prepared a boiled egg. Chop the peeled potatoes and eggs, add the tomato cut into half slices, mix everything, add salt, pepper, and season with oil. You can sprinkle fresh herbs on top.

How to clean small and large overgrown mushrooms before use

Very often, many mushroom pickers ask the question: how to clean small mushrooms, because it is so troublesome? Due to their small size, honey mushrooms are really difficult to clean and take a lot of time. Before you start peeling mushrooms, think about where you want to use them. For example, if they are dried or frozen, they should not be washed. Still, remember: damaged areas on mushrooms should always be removed! Simply cut off any dirt (if any) from the tips of the stems and wipe the caps with a dry kitchen sponge. For other processing processes, it is enough to soak the small fruiting bodies for 1 hour in cold salted water.

How to properly clean overgrown mushrooms will depend on the method of their further preparation. In this case, before processing, you should decide what you will do with the honey mushrooms. If they are suitable for drying, then it is enough to cut off the damaged areas with a knife and cut off the legs. Even if they are good and not spoiled by worms, they are cut off because they are large and hard. It is better to dry such parts of the mushroom in overgrown mushrooms separately. Knowing everything about the primary processing of overgrown fruiting bodies, you will know how to properly clean large honey mushrooms.

It is worth adding that the caps of large and overgrown honey mushrooms can be cleaned using a dry toothbrush with medium-hard bristles. If you find an insect in the plates, it can be easily removed with the tip of a knife. It is better not to wash large honey mushrooms in water, especially before drying, as they quickly absorb water and lose their attractive appearance.

Stages of primary processing

First of all, it should be noted that collected honey mushrooms cannot be stored fresh for a long time. Otherwise, they may quickly lose their taste and nutritional properties. In addition, leaving the basket untouched after returning from the forest, the appearance of fresh honey mushrooms will quickly cease to be presentable. Most likely, all you will get in the end is the blackened and unsightly remains of what was once called honey mushrooms. In particular, wet mushrooms that were collected in rainy weather do not tolerate long-term storage. Therefore, the conclusion suggests itself: it is necessary to sort and clean this type of fruiting bodies immediately after arriving from the forest.

But if for some reason this cannot be done, then be sure to take them out of the basket, sort them out and put them on newspaper in the room. At the same time, avoid direct sunlight, unless, of course, you are going to dry the mushrooms. Thanks to such actions, their preservation increases to 7-8 hours.

Primary processing of honey mushrooms at home includes several stages. Of course, it would be wise to start cleaning mushrooms in the forest, removing heavily contaminated areas with a knife. In this case, you will save sedum time in the future, and you won’t drag so much dirt home. Although honey mushrooms are considered clean mushrooms, some of them still have a lot of dirt on them. Here everything depends on the place where the fruiting bodies grow, as well as on the weather conditions under which they were collected.

So, when you come home, the first thing you need to do is sort through the mushrooms and throw away any wormy or rotten ones, if any are found. You can sort through mushrooms in the following way: we send young and whole specimens to one pile, and large, broken and trimmed ones to another. Then you should take a knife and cut off the lower part of the leg. If you notice small areas of rot and blackening on the fruit body, do not rush to throw it away. Simply cut this area with a knife, capturing a significant part of the “healthy” body. In addition, you can remove the damaged stem from the mushroom, leaving a completely intact and beautiful cap. You can also often find bugs under the cap of the honey fungus, but this does not mean it is spoiled. Take a knife and carefully remove the top layer along with the insects. Next, you need to decide for which processing process you want to use mushrooms. The further preparation of the fruiting bodies will depend on your decision.

Processing honey mushrooms means the following processes: drying, pickling, salting, frying, freezing and preservation. Thus, small and whole mushrooms are excellent for pickling and pickling. And unpresentable fruiting bodies can be cut into pieces and used for all other processes. Let's now look at the preparation for each method of processing honey mushrooms separately.

How to clean honey mushrooms and why remove the skirt from the mushroom stem?

How to properly clean honey mushrooms and why remove the skirt from the mushroom stem? This question remains relevant for all types of honey mushrooms and before any cooking process. Is it worth removing the membranous ring and why do it? Some, before peeling honey mushrooms before consumption, remove this sign of the edibility of the mushroom. However, in reality there is no practical need for this. This is a waste of energy and your time. I would like to say that the taste of the dish will not depend on whether you removed the skirt or not. Here you should focus on your personal preferences.

How to fry honey mushrooms. Step-by-step recipe for frying frozen mushrooms from the store

Nowadays, you don't have to go to the forest to bring home mushrooms. In the store you can find these gifts of the forest both fresh and frozen. A fairly popular type of mushroom is honey mushroom. These crispy little mushrooms are easy to freeze and can be used in a variety of dishes at any time.

Housewives often ask the question: how to fry frozen honey mushrooms? For example, you can cook mushrooms with onions and carrots very tasty.

Thaw the mushrooms. The fastest way to do this is at room temperature, then you will need 3-4 hours. In the refrigerator this process will take about 8 hours. If you need to get a defrosted product very quickly, you can use a microwave oven (Defrost mode).
Read on the packaging about the method of freezing honey mushrooms: raw or boiled. Raw ones need to be boiled for 10-15 minutes, adding 200 ml of water for every 100 g of mushrooms, and then drain the water. Boiled ones can be cooked immediately, but it is better to boil them. In this case, after freezing, the honey fungus acquires a more natural structure and becomes more delicate in taste.
Drain the mushrooms in a colander. As much water as possible should drain from them, otherwise they will not fry, but stew.
You will need fairly large carrots and onions. Peel the vegetables. Cut the onions and carrots into small strips. Chop or squeeze the garlic. Fried mushrooms are delicious on their own, but adding a clove of garlic will give them extra flavor and aroma.
Take a frying pan with a large surface. Pour in vegetable oil and add butter. The mixture of oils will highlight the taste of the products.
When the oil is hot, start frying the onion over medium heat. Make sure it doesn't burn. When the onion becomes translucent, add the carrots and garlic. Fry the vegetables until they are soft.
Add mushrooms and stir. Do not add salt right away, because salt provokes the release of moisture, which will be unnecessary in the dish. When you see that the mushrooms have begun to turn golden brown, cover them with a lid and fry for about 10 minutes, reducing the heat. Don't forget to stir.
Salt the mushrooms. You need to fry the honey mushrooms for another 5-7 minutes.

How to properly clean autumn and winter honey mushrooms

[includeme file=”wp-content/plugins/include-me/goog-left.php”]

How to properly clean autumn mushrooms so that any dish prepared from them is appetizing and safe for health? When sorting mushrooms, be sure to pay attention to the presence of a filmy ring on the stem. After all, you could mistakenly put inedible honey mushrooms in the basket, which, if consumed, can lead to poisoning. After all the mushrooms have been sorted and sorted, they are washed in plenty of water. However, this is only if you do not decide to dry them. If autumn mushrooms are saturated with water, it will be impossible to dry them properly, and after some time they will simply become moldy. Knowing how to clean autumn mushrooms, you can make any dish with an excellent quality mark.

Not all lovers of “quiet hunting” know that honey mushrooms can be collected in winter. Having harvested mushrooms during this period, many new mushroom pickers wonder how to clean winter mushrooms, since they grow under the snow? This type of honey mushroom begins to bear fruit at the end of October, so the mushroom caps are covered not only with grass, but with leaves. When it freezes, forest debris freezes on honey mushrooms and remains until you bring them home and they thaw. Only then does it become clear how to properly clean honey mushrooms. Thawed forest debris is easily removed from the caps, the tip of the stem is cut off and the honey mushrooms can be washed in water for further processes. Note that winter honey mushrooms can be subjected to any preparation options, except for drying. Winter mushrooms can be fried, pickled, boiled and salted. This species is also known in medicine for its anticancer and antiviral properties. Winter honey fungus can be prepared with potatoes, carrots and onions, which will enhance its beneficial qualities.

Thermal treatment of meadow mushrooms for the winter

Many lovers of “quiet hunting” like the taste of meadow mushrooms, which are found in clearings, forest edges or ravines. Such honey mushrooms grow in large groups that form so-called “witch circles.” These fruiting bodies are considered conditionally edible, but have an excellent taste. Processing of honey mushrooms before cooking is carried out according to the above rules. However, in this case, to cut the meadow honey fungus, mushroom pickers take scissors. Experts recommend consuming this type of honey mushroom along with the legs, since they contain marasmic acid and skorodonin, which cleanse the human body of viral diseases and cancer cells.

Processing of honey mushrooms for the winter is carried out as follows: cut fruiting bodies are cleaned of sand and soil, remnants of grass and leaves. Next, the meadow mushrooms are treated in large quantities of water. For example, water is poured into an appropriate container and honey mushrooms are poured out. Stir the mushrooms with your hands for a few minutes so that all the insect larvae and stuck sand come out of the caps. Remove to a colander or place on a sieve and allow the liquid to drain. Next, they begin to carry out heat treatment of honey mushrooms. Since these fruiting bodies are considered conditionally edible, they need to be boiled for about 30-35 minutes in salted water.

How to clean royal, scaly and birch honey mushrooms

This type of mushroom is classified as category 4, so in other countries it is not eaten as it is considered an inedible mushroom.
In Russia, royal honey mushrooms are prepared in the same way as other edible species. However, how to properly clean royal honey mushrooms, whose caps are covered with scales? The royal honey fungus is large in size, which corresponds to its name. This mushroom grows in large families on fallen trees or stumps. It is much easier to clean than ordinary mushrooms. But it must be said that for further preparation they take only the caps, because the legs of these honey mushrooms are very thick and fleshy. They are used to make caviar or marinated separately from the caps. How to quickly clean royal honey mushrooms, and what other processes can be done with them? You need to scrape off the scales from the caps of these mushrooms with a knife and remove the ring skirt. We have already said that royal honey mushrooms are large, so their scales and membranous ring are also large. In order not to spoil the attractive appearance of the future dish, all this must be removed. After that, the mushrooms need to be washed in a large amount of salt water so that sand and insect larvae come out of the plates. It is better to leave the honey mushrooms in water for 1.5-2 hours, and then boil for 30-40 minutes. Note that royal honey mushrooms can be consumed only after preliminary boiling.

This type of honey mushroom makes delicious soups, stews, pates and toppings for pizzas and pies. In addition, the caps of royal honey mushrooms (as well as the legs) can be pickled and salted.

In addition to the royal ones, there are other types of honey mushrooms, on the caps of which there is a large accumulation of hard scales. How to clean scaly honey mushrooms, and for what further cooking processes are they suitable? I would like to note that such mushrooms undergo the same purification as royal honey mushrooms. These species are much smaller in size and more similar to autumn species. However, after cleaning, they must also undergo heat treatment for 20-30 minutes, only then go for frying or stewing. Look at the photo on how to properly clean honey mushrooms for subsequent preparation:

How to clean birch mushrooms correctly and how quickly to do it? Birch mushrooms are summer mushrooms that prefer to grow only on birch trees and birch stumps. To avoid trimming mushroom stems at home, they are cut off in the forest. Take with you not a knife, as many do, but scissors. Large scissors are very convenient for cutting birch mushrooms, and if there are a lot of them, then you will reduce the collection time. If you find a tree lying on the ground, and there are a lot of birch mushrooms on it, then try to collect only young specimens. These mushrooms are perfect for pickling or pickling.

After the honey mushrooms have been cleared of remaining leaves and grass, they should be soaked in salt water for 10-15 minutes. Then rinse in running water and only then proceed to heat treatment. If you have collected large mushrooms, then it is better to wipe them with a damp kitchen sponge or cloth napkin.

During the initial processing of honey mushrooms, it is imperative to sort through and remove wormy and rotten ones, so as not to spoil the quality of the future dish. If you did not trim the lower part of the legs in the forest, then this should be done at home. Next, you should remove the skirt from the legs of the birch mushrooms. When marinated, it becomes soggy and the appetizer loses its aesthetic appearance. Therefore, use a thin knife to remove the skirt, and before marinating, rinse the mushrooms in water.

We suggest you look at a visual photo of how to clean honey mushrooms that were collected from birch trees:

Doubles again

False honey mushrooms: 1-Brick-red 2-Grey-plate

There are mushrooms that look very similar to honey mushrooms. They are called false mushrooms. They also grow in large families and cover old stumps or snags.

There are several varieties:

Summer false honey fungus (brick red).
Watery.
Sulfur yellow.

Seroplate.
Candoll's false foam.
Autumn, with a bright yellow cap and stem.

False honey mushrooms are distinguished from real ones by the color of the plates under the cap. If they are light, cream-colored, then the mushroom is real. In false species, the plates range from sulfur-yellow to dark, almost black. They taste bitter. Another difference is that under the cap there is no ring encircling the stem.

There are varieties of false mushrooms that are classified as conditionally edible. If you cook them for a long time, draining and changing the water, you can eat them. However, one cannot expect complete harmlessness from them.

How to properly clean honey mushrooms and how long to cook them?

An important heat treatment for mushrooms is boiling them in salted water. How to properly clean honey mushrooms before cooking to protect yourself and your loved ones? Cleaning before cooking is practically no different from cleaning before other processes. However, just before boiling, the mushrooms must not only be cleaned of forest contamination and most of the stem must be cut off. A very important point is soaking: honey mushrooms should be immersed in salted water and left for 2 hours so that all the insects and worms hidden in the cap plates come out of the mushrooms. Soaking will help rid the fruiting bodies of these parasites and sand.

Having shared information on how to clean honey mushrooms, we will tell you how long to cook them. After the mushrooms have gone through the soaking process, they need to be placed on a sieve, rinsed and allowed to drain well. Place the honey mushrooms in an enamel pan, add water so that it covers them, and let it boil. Boil the fruiting bodies for 20-40 minutes, depending on the size and type. As mentioned above, royal mushrooms undergo a long boiling process, because they belong to category 4 and are large in size. It is better not to overcook small specimens and allow no more than 20 minutes for this.

Cleaning honey mushrooms: how to soak honey mushrooms to remove dirt?

These mushrooms are soaked after they are cleaned in the forest, their stem is removed, and the mushrooms themselves are washed.
It is necessary to soak honey mushrooms in order to accurately eliminate worms and insects and thoroughly clean the honey mushrooms.

For soaking, use the following instructions:

For 1 liter of water, take 1 tsp. coarse salt.
Stir the water until the salt is completely dissolved.
Pour water over the mushrooms.
The maximum duration of the procedure is 1 hour.
Large honey mushrooms can be soaked for 2 hours.
If honey mushrooms are not very wormy, do not make such a strong salt solution. Add 1/4 tsp to 1 liter of water. salt.

Soaking
Do not risk your own health, do not leave mushrooms in water overnight. Prepare honey mushrooms as soon as you bring them home. But there is another option:

Just pour boiling water over the mushrooms.
Leave for 10 minutes.
Place in a colander.
Rinse, put in the refrigerator.

Honey mushrooms are not ready to eat yet; you will have to boil or fry them.

How to clean honey mushrooms to pickle mushrooms (with photos and videos)

How to properly clean honey mushrooms for pickling or pickling? If the mushrooms are intended for pickling, then before cleaning it is best to soak them for 30 minutes in warm water. There is no need to over-soak the mushrooms so that they do not lose their mushroom flavor. Scrape off the ring skirt of each mushroom and cut off most of the stem. If you want to speed up the cleaning process, then you don’t have to remove the skirt, because this will not affect the taste in any way. When sorting through the mushrooms, remove all rotten parts so that the final result of the prepared dish is not spoiled.

Some housewives prefer the dry method of cleaning honey mushrooms before pickling. It consists of using a dry kitchen sponge to carefully remove from each mushroom everything that has stuck to it in the forest. This method is considered effective and convenient, because honey mushrooms are always fairly clean mushrooms. Then honey mushrooms can be pickled in the ways that you like best.

Knowing how to properly clean and pickle honey mushrooms, you can prepare an amazingly tasty appetizer for any holiday feast.

We invite you to watch a video on how to clean honey mushrooms for pickling:

Some subtleties and tips

Before you start preparing honey mushrooms, it is useful to familiarize yourself with some subtleties:

If honey mushrooms are not purchased by weight, it is useful to know that 1 kg of mushrooms is 3 full three-liter jars. When cooked, they will significantly decrease in volume and occupy only one liter jar.
You can successfully marinate not only fresh, but also frozen honey mushrooms. There is no need to defrost them before cooking.
Ready (boiled) mushrooms settle to the bottom of the pan, while raw ones float on the surface.

When cooking for the first time, it is better to drain the broth after 10 minutes and finish cooking in another water. This will help you get rid of toxins more effectively.
Be sure to drain the foam during cooking. This must be done several times, since it contains all the harmful substances.
It is better to make the marinade using mushroom broth rather than water. However, if the water was not drained during the first cooking, the broth will have to be thrown away.

Pickling honey mushrooms is a simple process that does not require serious culinary preparation. It is only important to follow the recommendations and take care of safety - change the water during the first cooking, do not make the marinade too sour or salty. Some experienced people advise trying it during preparation - the right marinade should taste good.

Since the marinating recipes are similar, you can add certain spices and herbs. However, if the additive is too exotic, it is better to experiment with a small portion of honey mushrooms so as not to accidentally spoil all the preparations.

How to properly clean honey mushrooms before frying

How should honey mushrooms be cleaned for frying, and how does this process differ from others?
If you are going to fry honey mushrooms, then it is better to follow other recommendations. After the mushrooms have been brought home, they need to be quickly sorted out, those spoiled by worms and rotten ones must be discarded. Remove all forest debris from the caps with a dry kitchen napkin or sponge and cut off the tips of the stems, if they were not removed in the forest. Also carefully cut off all damaged areas with a knife. Sometimes there may be small insects under the caps, which can be easily removed with a sharp knife. How to clean honey mushrooms before frying so that the end result is a tasty and aromatic dish? As we discussed above, it is better to clean honey mushrooms using the dry method before frying. If you wash the mushrooms, they absorb water and then, when fried, fall apart and lose their shape. Before this processing process, many people take the time to pre-boil honey mushrooms. However, some housewives believe that boiling only reduces the unique taste of fresh fried mushrooms. Should I remove the skirt from the legs of honey mushrooms if they are going to be fried? In this case, it is not necessary, because when frying, the film on the leg dries out completely and is completely indistinguishable.

Processing of autumn mushrooms

Among mushroom pickers, autumn honey mushrooms are very popular because they have an amazing taste and aroma. How the mushrooms will be prepared in the future will determine how the autumn mushrooms will be processed. In this case, the same processes mentioned above are applied to this type of fruiting body.

It is worth noting that the processing of honey mushrooms and the processing time for each type are practically the same. The pre-cleaning time for these fruiting bodies varies from several hours to a day. If the mushroom harvest is large, then it should be divided into several parts so that processing is not so burdensome. Those honey mushrooms that you want to keep are best taken to a cool room and laid out on paper. If it is cool outside, then honey mushrooms can be placed in a well-ventilated area and left there overnight. However, experts still advise dealing with mushrooms immediately after they are brought home. This will help avoid possible poisoning from spoiled copies.

Read also: How much vitamin C is in an orange 100g

If honey mushrooms are collected from dead wood, then it is better not to pull them out, but to cut them with a stainless steel knife so that the cut does not darken. Having brought home a mushroom harvest, you will not have to remove the remains of the mycelium contaminated with dust and soil, and processing honey mushrooms will not be so difficult and time-consuming. These fruiting bodies are actually considered one of the easiest mushrooms to clean because they do not require scraping. And if you follow the advice and first clean them in the forest, then processing honey mushrooms before cooking will bring more positive emotions.

The caps of mushrooms are much more nutritious and meatier than the legs, although the legs also have their own beneficial vitamins and microelements. However, many mushroom pickers, if they find a large area occupied by honey mushrooms, collect only the caps. Then they don't have to spend a lot of time cleaning mushrooms after returning home. In addition, this method does not harm the mycelium, so next year you can safely return here to harvest a new harvest.

Many novice mushroom pickers are concerned with the question: how is honey mushrooms processed after harvesting if overgrown specimens are encountered? Let us note right away that overgrown and old specimens are always distinguished by flabby, softness and stale aroma. Therefore, it is better not to risk your health and throw away such fruiting bodies. However, if the old honey mushrooms have an attractive appearance and a good smell, you can leave them without any problems. Processing honey mushrooms in this case will largely depend on what you want to cook from them. Many people call mushroom caviar or pate the best option for old honey mushrooms.

Every mushroom picker rejoices when he sees a clearing of honey mushrooms in the forest, pretty, yellowish, small... Honey mushrooms are very convenient mushrooms to prepare, they can be pickled, salted, and fried, of course, you can cook soup from them, make mushroom pates... A whole lot of everything ! But before you cook, of course, you need to “put them in order” - be sure to clean and wash them so that there are no sticking leaves or blades of grass, soil and other dirt, which obviously will not give a pleasant taste to our dishes. Why can sometimes difficulties arise with proper cleaning of honey mushrooms? They are small in size, that's their whole secret.

How to clean fresh hemp mushrooms before freezing

If you decide that part of your mushroom harvest will be frozen, then you will be interested in knowing how to clean fresh mushrooms before freezing.

Of course, it would be correct if the preliminary cleaning of the mushrooms took place in the forest. This saves time when you are doing honey mushrooms at home. For freezing, many mushroom pickers usually collect hemp mushrooms, not meadow mushrooms. They are purer, with a pronounced taste and aroma of wild mushrooms. How should hemp mushrooms be cleaned before the freezing process? Let us remind you that honey mushrooms are frozen fresh, boiled and fried. However, cleaning is the same in all cases.

First, honey mushrooms are sorted out, discarding damaged and broken ones. Cut off the ends of the legs on which the mycelium remains and quickly rinse under running water. After placing the honey mushrooms on a kitchen towel, leave them for a while to completely drain the liquid. Lay out in single layers and place in the freezer, turning it on at full power for quick freezing. Then the honey mushrooms are distributed into plastic bags and placed back in the freezer at normal temperature.

To freeze boiled or fried mushrooms, mushrooms undergo the same primary cleaning as fresh ones, but with other subsequent processing processes - boiling and frying.

Cook, cook, honey fungus!

Before you fry, stew, pickle or freeze honey mushrooms, you will have to cook them properly. For each type of dish, cooking mushrooms is significantly different, so let’s look at all the nuances in more detail!

How and how long to cook honey mushrooms before frying

Fried honey mushrooms are a special, incomparable, incredibly aromatic and tasty dish. It can be served as an independent snack or as an addition to pasta and cereals, boiled or fried potatoes.

Before adding the mushrooms to the frying pan, they should be boiled. To do this, place an enamel pan on the stove; there should be no scratches or chips of the enamel inside the container. It is important! Pour water into the pan and add salt at the rate of 0.5 tablespoon per 1 liter of liquid.

When the water boils, carefully place the mushrooms into it. During cooking, skim off any rising foam with a slotted spoon. Cook for half an hour. Then drain the water and rinse the mushrooms. Bring salted water to a boil again in a saucepan, put honey mushrooms in it and cook for another 25 minutes. Then everything is simple: put the mushrooms in a colander, let the excess moisture drain and you can fry.

How to cook honey mushrooms before salting and pickling

An excellent preparation for the winter is a jar of salted or pickled honey mushrooms. Place the pre-cleaned mushrooms in a stainless steel or enamel pan (with a perfectly intact inner coating). Add a couple of tablespoons of salt and pour boiling water until it completely covers the mushroom mass. Cook for 10 - 15 minutes, constantly skimming off the foam. Then the honey mushrooms should be washed and again filled with salted boiling water. When the mushrooms sink to the bottom, you can remove them from the stove.

How and how much to cook honey mushrooms for soup and casseroles

If you intend to cook aromatic soup from honey mushrooms, or make a casserole, pie filling, caviar, etc., then the mushrooms must also be pre-cooked. Pour boiling water over the prepared honey mushrooms, add 1 tablespoon of salt per two liters of water, 1 peeled onion, a couple of bay leaves, peppercorns and cook for 20 minutes. Then drain the broth, it is not suitable for food, throw away the spices and onion. Let the honey mushrooms cool, cut them into small pieces and add them according to the recipe to any dish.

How to cook honey mushrooms for freezing

Raw honey mushrooms cannot be frozen; they should first be boiled and cooled. If you package honey mushrooms before sending them to the freezer in small plastic bags or special containers, then you will not have to defrost the entire volume, which will allow you to more rationally use portioned mushroom preparations for preparing your favorite dishes.

Pour the mushrooms prepared in advance into a pan of salted boiling water. If the honey mushrooms are young, then cook them for no more than 25 minutes. If you come across older mushrooms, then it will take about 40 - 45 minutes to cook them. Then drain the honey mushrooms in a colander and rinse with running water to drain all the mucus. When the mushrooms are dry, transfer them to freezer containers and store them in the freezer.

When you need to prepare some tasty dish from frozen honey mushrooms, all you have to do is remove them from the bag and immediately put them in a saucepan or frying pan. There is no need to defrost the mushrooms beforehand. Otherwise, they will lose too much moisture and become rubbery, dry and completely unpalatable.

How long to cook honey mushrooms in a slow cooker

If you have a slow cooker, then you can safely use it to cook mushrooms. To do this, you must first soak the mushrooms in clean salted water for a couple of hours. Then drain the water and rinse the mushrooms under running water several times. After transferring them to the multicooker sieve, place a bowl of water under it. Add a little salt to the honey mushrooms. Cook in the “Steam” mode for 20 – 25 minutes.

The process of cooking honey mushrooms in a double boiler will be similar. Place the mushrooms evenly on the tray, press the button with the image of vegetables and mushrooms, or set the timer for 25 - 30 minutes, depending on the power of your device. After the beep, turn off the steamer and let the honey mushrooms cool right on the tray.

How and how much to cook beets: cooking secrets