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Of the huge variety of mushrooms found on the territory of the Russian Federation, boletus mushrooms are considered one of the most common, distinguished by their perfect taste and rich chemical composition. In order to cook them efficiently, you need to learn how to accurately find them, select and clean boletus mushrooms correctly, and follow recipes for dishes.
The method of processing and cooking affects the quality of the final product, the duration of its storage, and the possibility of using the preparations for a long time. The ability to quickly and efficiently select, clean and cook fruiting bodies will be useful to any housewife who wants to serve delicious pickles, snacks, and soups based on popular forest products.
How to clean boletus mushrooms before cooking
Mushrooms are a product that spoils quickly, so they need to be processed as soon as possible. Before you start cleaning mushroom raw materials, you should carefully inspect and sort them based on several criteria - size, quality and age.
For cleaning you will need a knife, cloth and a small brush. The contamination of boletus mushrooms depends on where they grew. Those collected in the forest will have to be freed from grass, leaves, moss, twigs and other debris. Found in open spaces, clearings, they must be cleaned of soil, dust, and leaves.
Processing is carried out according to plan:
- Remove foliage, pine needles, and debris from the surface of the mushrooms with a brush.
- Cut off the base of the leg and peel its skin using a sharp knife.
- Cut the cap and stem lengthwise to detect damage and worms.
Young and strong specimens should be set aside for further drying, and old and damaged ones should be thrown away or soaked in salted water (2 tablespoons of coarse rock salt per 1 liter of water) to remove worms and insects.
Mushrooms intended for drying are not soaked or washed, but only cleaned with a cloth or by scraping off dirt and plaque with a knife. Fruit bodies for frying, pickling, and cooking are soaked in water for 1 hour, after which they begin processing.
After the boletus mushrooms have been cleaned according to all the rules, you can start cooking the mushrooms.
Do you need to boil boletus mushrooms?
To obtain a quality product, it is not enough to learn how to properly peel boletus mushrooms; pre-boiling them is considered equally important. The need for cooking is explained by the fact that they are able to absorb toxins from the soil during growth.
In large specimens, waste products of the fungi themselves accumulate, which creates a danger to human health.
Pre-boiling helps ensure that most of the toxins go into the broth, and the boletus mushrooms are cleaned. Cooking is required if the fruiting bodies were collected within the city, near highways, railway tracks, or in an industrial zone. The appearance of the boletus may be impeccable, it practically does not require cleaning, but at the same time the fruiting body is maximally saturated with toxins. Heat treatment minimizes the risk of poisoning.
Although cooking reduces the aroma and taste of the product, its usefulness increases significantly.
If you boil boletus mushrooms according to the rules, correctly performing all the manipulations, observing the time frame for heat treatment, you can get mushrooms from which it is easy to prepare delicious dishes that are absolutely safe for the human body.
Learn more about how to clean and cook boletus mushrooms in the video:
How to cook boletus mushrooms
Among the cooking recipes, the most popular are salting, pickling, frying, and soups made from frozen mushroom semi-finished products. Each case has its own subtleties of heat treatment of boletus mushrooms before cooking.
Before freezing
To obtain a semi-finished product, you can freeze boletus mushrooms after boiling them, and in winter you can easily and quickly prepare a tasty and healthy dish from them. Preparation for freezing consists of the following:
- Before you start cooking boletus mushrooms for freezing, they need to be peeled, washed and cut into small slices.
- Place in a saucepan, add water.
- Bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for about 40 minutes.
- Remove foam periodically.
- Drain the broth and dry the boletus mushrooms a little.
- Prepare containers.
- Place the cooled fruit bodies in containers, close them and put them in the freezer.
Before salting
To prepare pickles, mushrooms are cooked twice. For this purpose, they are cleaned, washed, cut into pieces and dipped into the prepared brine after it boils. Boil for about half an hour, then drain the liquid. The boletus mushrooms are placed in new brine and boiled for about 10 minutes. and start salting.
How to Boil Before Frying
To prepare boletus mushrooms for frying, you can cook them in two ways. The first is as follows:
- The fruiting bodies are cleaned, filled with cold water, and put on fire.
- Bring to a boil.
- Remove the foam periodically.
- Reduce heat, cover the pan with a lid and cook for about an hour.
The second option involves the following procedure:
- The boletus mushrooms are cleaned, filled with water and quickly brought to a boil.
- Cook for 5 minutes.
- The broth is drained.
- Dip it again into clean hot salted water and put it on the fire.
- After boiling, it is recommended to cook the boletus mushrooms for about 20 minutes, removing the foam.
How to cook dried boletus mushrooms
If you need to cook already dried boletus mushrooms, you should first soak them in water for 2 hours. After that, put them in salted boiling water, cover with a lid, and cook for 2 hours over low heat.
It is worth remembering the secrets of the process:
- To prevent the mushrooms from darkening, before cooking they must be washed in water, adding citric acid or vinegar;
- As a result of boiling boletus and boletus together, very tasty and rich broths are obtained;
- to preserve the taste and aroma, cook the mushroom mass over medium heat;
- Spices should be added after cooking;
- boletus mushrooms go well with pepper, bay leaves, and herbs.
How long to cook boletus mushrooms until tender
In order to bring the boletus mushrooms to full readiness, you should cook them for 40 minutes. This period can be divided into two equal intervals: after the first, drain the broth and replace it with new water.
Additional cooking somewhat reduces the taste of boletus mushrooms. However, the toxins contained in them can be removed quite successfully by boiling. The complete readiness of the product is judged by the moment the mushrooms drop to the bottom of the pan.
Many housewives advise not only boiling boletus mushrooms in “two waters,” but also adding an onion to the broth. It can be used to judge the edibility of the fruiting bodies. If the color changes to blue, then there is a poisonous specimen in the pan.
Conclusion
Belonging to the highest category does not negate the need to thoroughly clean boletus mushrooms and cook them according to all the rules. Mushrooms that have not been subjected to heat treatment have a richer taste after frying or salting, but it is only possible to get rid of toxins that inevitably accumulate in the fruiting bodies by cooking.
It is everyone’s choice whether to boil the collected forest products or not. Common sense dictates the need to significantly reduce the risk of harm to health - thoroughly clean and heat-treat mushroom raw materials.
