Content
Salting and pickling milk mushrooms in a cold and sometimes hot way is always fraught with one problem - the appearance of mold. However, this is not always a death sentence for homemade preparations. If salted or pickled milk mushrooms become moldy, then if detected early, they can be saved.
Why did mold appear after salting milk mushrooms?
Molds are the most common living organism on earth. In a comfortable environment, they multiply quite quickly, spreading to more and more new territories. Canned mushrooms are an excellent nutritional base for mold development. It is enough for even a small amount of mold spores to get into the container where salted or pickled milk mushrooms are stored, this will certainly lead to the spread of the source of infection to all products, without exception, located in the jar.
Mold on mushrooms is the result of violations during canning and storage
There are quite a few reasons why salted milk mushrooms become moldy even in tightly sealed jars under a metal lid. Here are the main ones:
- Insufficient heat treatment (hot canning).
- Dirty raw materials.
- Small amount of preservative ingredients such as salt or vinegar.
- Poor preparation of containers for canning, insufficient sterilization of jars.
- Loose twisting of cans, violation of their tightness during storage.
- Unacceptable storage conditions.
Is it possible to eat salted milk mushrooms with mold?
Mold requires oxygen to grow. Therefore, mushrooms grow mold first of all in the place where there is direct contact of the fruiting body with air. As a result, the fruiting bodies turn black and a greenish-white coating appears on their surface. They cannot be eaten in this form. The deeper layers of the caps, hidden under the thickness of the brine, become moldy much later. If the milk mushrooms are moldy on top, then it is necessary to get rid of the entire top layer that has traces of damage. There may well be absolutely normal salted mushrooms underneath. If you carry out a series of manipulations with them, then they can be eaten without any danger.
Mushrooms severely affected by mold have only one way - to the trash heap
What to do with mold on salted milk mushrooms
Having discovered that the salted milk mushrooms have become moldy, you need to start processing them as quickly as possible. In this case, most of the household supplies will most likely be saved. The top layer of milk mushrooms, on which there is blackness and obvious traces of mold development, should be thrown away without hesitation.If underneath there are caps that are clean and have no signs of damage, then they need to be carefully transferred to another container. Since mold spores are already present in the brine, all extracted fruiting bodies must be boiled to avoid further development of the fungus.
A saucepan with selected clean milk mushrooms is filled with clean water and put on fire. To kill mold spores, simply bring water to a boil. After boiling, the water is drained. The mushrooms are laid out in sterilized containers, sprinkled with salt, and filled with fresh brine.
Boiling will kill mold spores in the brine.
It is necessary to disinfect not only the container in which the milk mushrooms are placed, but also the wooden circle and the pressure that holds the mushrooms in the brine. They are thoroughly washed from mold with water and then scalded with boiling water. The circle and oppression are installed in place, after which the container is removed for storage.
Rules for storing salted milk mushrooms
Milk mushrooms are best stored at a temperature of + 2-4 °C. As it increases, the risk of mold reoccurrence increases significantly. To prevent this, the tub is regularly inspected. Approximately once a week, the pressure is removed and the wooden circle is removed, the brine, which is located above the level of the mushrooms, is carefully drained, adding a fresh saline solution instead. The edges of the tub are wiped with a cloth soaked in vinegar. The wooden circle and the bend are washed with water and scalded with boiling water, after which they are returned to their place.
When stored under the right conditions, the risk of mold growing on salted mushrooms is very low.
In the video you can see how to control the development of mold when pickling mushrooms:
Conclusion
If during storage the salted milk mushrooms become moldy, then this is not a reason to throw them away. It is enough to cull, re-disinfect the container and the mushrooms themselves and fill them with fresh brine. And in order to avoid a recurrence of the problem, during a detailed inspection the cause of the mold must be established, the storage conditions and the quality of the raw materials used must be checked.
