Drying mushrooms in the oven: the cooking process

Mushrooms have unique properties and althoughare not able to cure all diseases, however, they have a beneficial effect on the body and even help fight cancer. Mushrooms contain a lot of sulfur and polysaccharides. Any dried mushroom, as a rule, contains up to 30% proteins, in addition, mushrooms contain fiber and carbohydrates, fat-like substances and amino acids. In addition, mushrooms contain many more vitamins than vegetables and fruits. Medicinal properties are lost after boiling and frying, so it is most useful to marinate or dry them. The most reliable preventive measure against cancer is dried porcini mushroom. Its use is very useful for strengthening the body, it perfectly stimulates mental abilities. With its help, you can strengthen the heart, in addition, it is a preventive measure for headaches. To preserve all the healing properties, it must be dried and ground into powder. And the powder should be taken daily on a teaspoon 1 time per day. The place of collection of mushrooms affects their drying. And there are also different drying methods. You can dry in the sun; in a Russian oven, if you have one; in a microwave oven; and, of course, in the oven. It doesn’t really matter which cooking method you choose, because the result will be worthy. Drying in the oven is one of the most accessible and simple ways to prepare mushrooms. This way they are well preserved for a long time. In terms of digestibility and nutritional value, they surpass pickled mushrooms, and in terms of protein content, they surpass canned mushrooms. When dried, mushrooms retain all their nutritional value; the aroma of some species — especially porcini — even intensifies with this method of processing them. However, not all edible families can be dried. Many lamellar mushrooms are bitter, and if they are dried, the bitterness will not disappear. Such mushrooms do not need to be dried. Air drying is possible only in hot and dry weather in the sun. This drying lasts about a week.

Preparation before drying

Of course, the most natural way of drying isnatural, under the open rays of the sun. But if the weather does not allow it, then the most reliable method is drying in the oven or in the stove. You can even dry over the stove, but this is a less convenient method. Select fresh, healthy, strong mushrooms not damaged by worms. In urban conditions in modern kitchens, where there is always an oven, the method of drying mushrooms in it is the most common and simple. To dry mushrooms in the oven, it is advisable to sort the mushrooms by size. The temperature in the oven should reach 50 degrees. If the mushrooms are dry - this significantly improves the quality and time of the drying process in the oven. If the mushrooms are wet, it is very difficult for them to get rid of this moisture. Therefore, mushrooms should not be washed before laying them on a baking sheet. It is enough to simply clean them from needles, leaves, sand, moss, earth, wipe with a clean, slightly damp cloth and send to dry. If the mushroom has a large cap, it is better to divide it into slices to speed up the drying process, and also cut the stem 2-3 cm from the cap. If you are drying a porcini mushroom, aspen mushroom or birch bolete, it is better to cut the stems into columns 3 cm long or wheels up to 2 cm thick. When drying butter mushrooms, honey mushrooms and chanterelles, boletus mushrooms, only their caps are used, and morels are dried whole. Place each mushroom on a wire rack (if you don’t have one, you can use a baking sheet) so that it does not touch the neighboring ones. This layout of the mushrooms on the baking sheet will allow air to circulate well and easily go around each mushroom. Each mushroom dries separately, without sticking together. Now you can put the baking sheet in the oven. First, the mushrooms are dried at a temperature of 45-50 degrees. If you immediately set a higher temperature, protein substances will start to stand out and dry on the surface of the mushrooms, which will significantly worsen the further drying process, and will also give the mushrooms a dark color. At the same time, the mushrooms become so soft that they cannot be used for food later. Only when the surface of the mushrooms dries out, they will become dryish in appearance, you can raise the temperature to 65-70 degrees.

Cooking process

Dry the mushrooms at a temperature of 50 degrees for 2 hours.Important tip: roll a potholder or kitchen towel into a tube and insert it into the oven door to create space and keep the oven door slightly open. Mushrooms are 80-90% moisture, and when drying, this moisture evaporates and accumulates in the oven. Thus, a steam room is formed in the oven during cooking, which will lead to unwanted condensation and droplets will appear on the mushrooms, and this will disrupt the drying process. It is worth looking into the oven periodically and separating the stuck mushrooms from the grate and from each other. When the mushrooms become non-sticky, increase the oven temperature to 70 degrees. Leave the mushrooms to dry for another 2 hours at a temperature of 70 degrees in the oven. You need to monitor the drying process, periodically checking the mushrooms. If you see that the mushroom has dried, you can slightly increase the temperature, if you notice droplets, then reduce the temperature again and wait for them to dry as long as necessary. If you want to speed up the drying process, you can chop them into pieces. In addition, it is possible to speed up the preparation and drying in modern ovens by turning on the air ventilation mode, while the door should be left slightly open. After a couple of hours in this mode, some mushrooms will already dry out. Ready, that is, dried, should not crumble into pieces, they retain a little elasticity and resilience. Each dried mushroom should be checked separately for readiness and those that you consider ready, put in a glass hermetically sealed jar. Mushrooms can be considered dried when they are dry to the touch, light, bend slightly and crumble with some effort. Correctly and well dried have an aroma, and taste like fresh ones.

Helpful Tips

Ratio of dry to fresh peeled weightis 10-14%. That is, from 10 kg of fresh mushrooms you will get no more than 1-1.4 kg of dried ones. Ready mushrooms should be taken out of the oven in a timely manner and put away. You should carefully monitor the remaining ones so as not to miss the moment of their drying to the desired state. In no case should you overdry them, because they will lose their aroma, their useful properties and will simply become tasteless. An overdried product is not restored during heat treatment, does not boil or soften. But this does not mean that it is better not to dry them enough, since underdried ones do not store well, mold forms on them at the slightest dampness, they begin to spoil quickly. The duration of each of the processes of drying and drying mushrooms cannot be determined exactly. It depends on many factors: the area where they grew, the type of mushrooms, and their size. If both the caps and the plates are the same size, then, of course, they will dry out at the same time.