Drying mushrooms: what you need to know about this method
But you can not dry all the edible mushrooms. Many plate mushrooms contain bitterness, which does not disappear during the drying process. They are not suitable for drying. At home, you can dry the following types of mushrooms:
- from the marsupials - a truffle white, morels, morel's cap;
- from the tubular - the boletus, white, podberezoviki, all kinds of oily, mosses, oaks, goats, Polish mushroom;
- from trutovikov - tinderpies motley and branched, mushroom-ram;
- from lamellar - summer and winter, summer fall, champignons, podshennik, mushroom umbrella variegated, deer fungus, scaly whip;
- from chanterelles - chanterelle ordinary.
Drying depends on the region, the specific placecollection, transportation features and technical capabilities. Each experienced hostess has and uses her own, long-established drying methods. You can dry fruits in the fresh air (in the sun), in the oven, in the oven, over an electric or gas stove, on exotic heating appliances such as kerosene or primus, on central heating batteries, using modern microwave ovens, etc. If you want to simplify and speed up drying, use a microwave oven for this. In short, if you need to save time, the microwave will do it well, and the mushrooms will be dried quality and fast. 
Drying technology in microwave oven
Before drying the mushrooms in the microwave,carry out a thorough inspection. Choose whole strong and fresh fruits, without rot, cracks and parasitic worms, all the rest discard without regret. With a dry cloth, gently remove coniferous needles, soil debris, moss and other "nature gifts". Try to wipe all the dirt as carefully as possible to wash the mushrooms is not needed. Washing complicates their drying and promotes rapid darkening of the fruit. In cooking, there is a rule for choosing a variety of mushrooms: all kinds of marsupial and tubular edible fungi are suitable for drying, whereas platelets are undesirable to dry. This is due to the property of the latter to acquire a bitter taste during the loss of moisture. The exception to this rule are mushrooms and honey agarics, which are tolerated without any problems and unwanted "side effects". If time allows, just before drying the mushrooms in the microwave, let them sweat in the sun. To do this, they should be strung on a string or line, leaving a gap between the bodies (do not allow each other to touch) and hang out in the open air. Thanks to the preliminary preparation of the fruit, the drying will occur gradually, and the result will affect the best way. This step is optional, but desirable. It can be skipped or after drying, immediately proceed directly to the drying itself.
Determine the readiness of fungi
Readiness of fungi is determined by the followingthey are seemingly dry, but at the same time they retain a certain elasticity, bend, but do not break right away, but only with a little effort. Upon reaching this state, it can be assumed that the fungi are dried out qualitatively. If the pieces of fruit do not bend, but with a crash immediately break down or even crumble, then they are overdried. They can hardly be used as independent components of culinary dishes, but you can still save the product by preparing a mushroom seasoning from it. Using a coffee grinder, grind the dried mushrooms into powder. The resulting mushroom flour can be mixed simply with salt or with dry spices. It perfectly retains the mushroom flavor and passes it to the dishes, if added to the dishes for a couple of minutes until cooked. Dried mushrooms for a long time, sometimes for years, retain their natural flavor, if properly observed conditions of their storage. Otherwise, blanks quickly absorb moisture from the air, dampen and deteriorate. That is why it is best to choose a dry, well ventilated place for storing dried mushrooms. Pack them preferably in glass containers or in bags that do not allow water to pass through. In addition to high absorption properties, dried mushrooms easily absorb foreign smells. Make sure that next to them for a long time do not find other products with a bright scent.
Features of drying mushrooms in a microwave oven
Despite all the undoubted merits,The microwave oven has its drawbacks when it comes to applying it to drying mushrooms. To get a quality, non-dried and non-salty product, you need a certain skill. It usually comes only with experience, so be prepared for the fact that the first parties can be spoiled. Also here you can take into account the second feature of drying mushrooms in a microwave: the duration of this process. Many microwave ovens do not have a large capacity. Thus, observing the technology of laying out mushrooms in one layer, taking into account several repeated drying cycles, you will have to spend enough time from the beginning of the preparation of the fruit until the final result is obtained. But the merits of the dried mushrooms themselves do not detract from this. Having spent patience and a certain time, you will get a fragrant, rich, nutritious seasoning for various culinary experiments. In addition, dried fruits retain all the useful qualities of fresh mushrooms, making their smell and taste more expressive. Their weight is reduced by about 10 times, and the nutritional properties become more concentrated as much. In dried mushrooms the protein is stored more than in pickled, salted and canned in any other way. They are stored much longer and easier, taking up very little space. In a word, there are solid advantages in the preparation of mushrooms in this way.
