How to properly freeze fresh, stewed, boiled, fried honey mushrooms for the winter: the best recipes. How to process fresh honey mushrooms before freezing?

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Kira Stoletova

Preparing mushrooms for the winter involves not only pickling, but also freezing. Freezing fresh honey mushrooms has many advantages. Collected fruiting bodies with this storage method do not lose their taste and beneficial properties even after a long stay at a temperature of -18°C.

Freezing honey mushrooms

Preparing mushrooms before freezing

Honey mushrooms are one of the best types of mushrooms to store in the freezer. Their size is small and the flesh is dense. After defrosting, the consistency of the product will not change much. Store-bought mushrooms can be frozen without the need for pre-processing. If mushrooms are collected in the forest, some features of obtaining preparations must be taken into account.

Having found the mycelium, they carefully clear the place where the mycelium grows and cut off the fruiting bodies with a clean, sharp knife. After the cut aromatic mushrooms are in the hands of a person, they are cleaned of dirt and placed in a basket with the cap down.

Before harvesting it is important:

1. Select fruiting bodies of small or medium size. Large mushrooms are rarely used: they are less susceptible to freezing.
2. Use only whole fruiting bodies. Rotten and damaged mushrooms are discarded.
3. Rinse the product under running water (optional).

There are several ways to freeze at home. Both raw mushrooms and those that have undergone preliminary heat treatment are frozen.

When preparing fresh mushrooms, a kind of fork arises: for sanitary purposes, it is recommended to wash the mushrooms before freezing, but for culinary purposes, it is not. And all because, after washing under water, the fruiting bodies are saturated with moisture, and this negatively affects the storage of the product in the freezer.

How to boil honey mushrooms for freezing?

Many people do not trust mushrooms that have not been cooked. And although many housewives calmly store honey mushrooms in the freezer freshly frozen, most still prefer to boil them first.

The most incredulous cooks boil honey mushrooms twice: the first time they wait until it boils and cook for about twenty minutes, and then they change the water, add salt to it and put the mushrooms in boiling water for another 10-15 minutes. Most people boil honey mushrooms once; the cooking time after boiling is 15-20 minutes. Some believe that these mushrooms should be boiled in a small amount of water (1 cup per 5-6 liter pan), no more than 10 minutes, with the addition of salt and bay leaf. And this broth is subsequently frozen and used to make soups and sauces.

Based on the fact that honey mushrooms are suitable for freezing and fresh, the cooking process is presented as a method for more compact storage of mushrooms: after heat treatment, they release a lot of water and lose a lot in volume.

Freezing raw product

You can freeze honey mushrooms raw. All you need to do is prepare a large cutting board and make room for it in the freezer.

The fruiting bodies are evenly laid out on the board in one layer. They are then frozen raw. After 2-3 hours, when the mycelium has hardened, it is transferred to a plastic bag for further storage. Advice. If you are afraid that the mushrooms laid out on the cutting board will freeze to it, cover it with plastic and then arrange the mushrooms.

Boiling frozen mushrooms

If desired, or if you don’t have time, you can boil frozen honey mushrooms without first thawing them.

• Place the frozen honey mushrooms in a saucepan and add a small layer of water so that it only slightly covers the fruiting bodies.
• Add salt to the water at the rate of 1 tbsp. spoon per 1 kg. mushrooms
• Place on the fire, bring to a boil and cook for 20 minutes, skimming off any foam that appears.
• The resulting broth can be used for mushroom sauce or broth.

How long to cook fresh honey mushrooms before frying and before freezing

Freezing blanched mushrooms

You can freeze honey mushrooms not only fresh, but also treated with hot water.

To carry out blanching, you need to prepare 2 pans, a colander, a slotted spoon and paper towels. Cold water is poured into one of the containers, and a saline solution (20 g of salt per 1 liter of water) is poured into the other.

Following actions:

1. Place the pan with brine on the fire and bring to a boil.
2. Honey mushrooms are placed in a boiling saline solution. They are boiled in it for no longer than 3 minutes.
3. Using a slotted spoon, the product is removed from the brine and placed in cold water (shock treatment).
4. After the operation, the future preparation for the winter is laid out in a colander, allowing the water to drain completely.
5. Dry the mushrooms on a paper towel, spreading them out in one layer.

To freeze honey mushrooms for the winter, the dried product is placed in plastic bags or in special containers for storing food. To properly freeze honey mushrooms, you need to divide the blanched mushrooms into small parts in order to use the created reserves if necessary.

Irina Selyutina (Biologist):

Experienced chefs are convinced that blanching of honey mushrooms, like other mushrooms, can be done if you plan to use them in the future for soups or mushroom caviar. For other recipes, in their opinion, including for frying, it is better not to blanch honey mushrooms - the shape of the mushrooms may be deformed.

You cannot defrost one large portion several times. After the second defrosting, the fruiting bodies will become soft and change shape and color.

Are honey mushrooms frozen for the winter?

Honey mushrooms, like many other products, are perfectly stored frozen. They have a dense structure, are not too watery and can be kept at sub-zero temperatures for about 12 months. This way they will retain their natural smell, taste and nutritional elements. And what’s especially nice is that this method of long-term storage requires much less effort than, say, traditional pickling. In addition, pickled mushrooms cannot be added to all dishes due to the strong spices, while frozen ones are perfect for soup, julienne, and pie.

Freezing boiled mushrooms

You can freeze boiled mushrooms

Some housewives prefer to boil mushrooms before placing them in the freezer. The cooking and freezing procedure has its own characteristics. The fruiting bodies are washed and then thrown into cold water. Further actions with fresh honey mushrooms look like this:

1. Place the pan with mushrooms on the fire.
2. Bring to a boil.
3. The water is drained. Mushrooms are poured into a colander.
4. New water is boiled and the product is poured back into the hot water.

Boil the mushrooms for 40-50 minutes. After cooking, boiled honey mushrooms are placed in a colander to drain excess liquid. Then they are placed on a paper towel. When the boiled mushrooms have cooled and dried, they are frozen.

How long can honey mushrooms be stored?

The shelf life of the product depends on the form in which it was frozen:

• If honey mushrooms are placed in a chamber in raw form, then the product is used within six months.
• If the mushrooms were frozen in a boiled state, they can be stored for up to a year.
• Fried or stewed, it can be stored for up to 4 months.

The optimal temperature required to freeze mushrooms and store them for a long period of time is minus 18 degrees.

Freezing stewed mushrooms

You can freeze honey mushrooms for the winter even after the preliminary stewing procedure. After such treatment, the product will not lose its taste and aroma. Cooking time for harvested fruit bodies when boiling, frying, etc. will decrease.

The extinguishing procedure is simple.

What to do with fresh mushrooms:

1. Honey mushrooms are placed in a clean hot frying pan (fat is not used).
2. The fruits are salted and covered with a lid.
3. The fruits are stewed in their own juice for 25-30 minutes.

After the mushrooms have cooled, they are carefully placed in plastic or glass containers for freezing. You can also freeze the harvested harvest in the forest after preliminary stewing in the oven. The product is simmered on a baking sheet at a temperature of +180°C for 20-25 minutes. The main thing is to prevent the juice from completely evaporating. If necessary, add boiled water to the tray.

Trophies of a quiet hunt

Silent hunting, with all its searching delights, is only the first stage of every mushroom adventure. When the foragers, tired of searching, return home, and baskets filled with mushrooms take their place in the corner of the kitchen, a logical question arises - what to do next?

Next is the no less fascinating process of culinary preparation of mushrooms, or storing them for future use, and an important part of this process is boiling the mushrooms.

During the cooking process, the fruiting bodies of mushrooms acquire a more pronounced taste and aroma, and become denser in consistency.

In this article we will talk about the technology of boiling honey mushrooms - how to do it correctly, and how long the boiling procedure should take to obtain the most successful result.

How long to cook fresh honey mushrooms before frying and before freezing

Freezing fried mushrooms

You can freeze honey mushrooms at home and roast them. Before heat treatment, it is important to rinse them properly and dry them on a paper towel. Fry over low heat with a little fat. It is better to use sunflower oil for these purposes.

Honey mushrooms are fried for no more than 20 minutes, stirring constantly. In the allotted time, the juice released from the fruiting bodies should evaporate.

Irina Selyutina (Biologist):

Fried mushrooms, placed in a container for freezing, are filled with the fat in which they were fried, and only then the product is completely frozen. When freezing mushrooms in this way, you need to use them within 3-4 months, because... further storage will lead to their loss of taste. When defrosting, you need to be prepared for the fact that your workpiece will look like a homogeneous mass. By the way. The same applies to stewed and boiled honey mushrooms.

Only after this is the product cooled to room temperature and stored in the freezer.

How to properly use frozen mushrooms

Pre-defrosting of frozen mushrooms is not required. From the freezer, previously boiled or fried honey mushrooms are sent directly to the soup or frying pan. But with raw frozen honey mushrooms you will have to tinker: you will need to pre-boil them, after which they will be ready to create masterpieces of mushroom cooking.

Carefully collected, well-cleaned honey mushrooms, if properly frozen and used, will give a special taste and aroma to both simple and gourmet dishes at any time of the year.

How long to cook mushrooms?

Before freezing, housewives often have this question. There is no clear answer to this. Some people cook mushrooms for a short time, from five to ten minutes. This reduces the volume of mushrooms, but undercooked mushrooms will then have to be cooked longer when cooking. The freezing process itself will not cause any particular difficulties. Now that we know how long to cook mushrooms before freezing, let’s decide which of them are best frozen raw and which ones we will heat-treat.

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It is preferable to freeze good varieties of mushrooms in their raw form: porcini, boletus, aspen - in general, those that have a spongy surface under the cap. Chanterelles and honey mushrooms fall under the same category. It is not recommended to freeze these mushrooms for a simple reason: after defrosting, they will lose their taste and will be watery.

For old mushrooms, before freezing, you need to remove the bottom layer of the cap, for lamellar species - the plates, for spongy species - the spongy part.

To store the mushrooms more compactly in the freezer, it is recommended to cut them into small pieces. The smallest ones can be frozen whole. In winter, they are suitable for decorating the appearance of dishes.

To freeze, sliced ​​mushrooms are scattered on a tray in a thin layer and the freezer is turned on at maximum temperature. After twelve hours, any fungi will be frozen. After that, they are poured into a bag and placed in the freezer, switched to normal mode.

Features of the type and useful properties

Honey mushrooms belong to the Physalacriaceae family and have several species that differ not only in external characteristics and place of growth, but also in taste. But despite some differences, all types also have common features:

The shade of the cap depends on the location where the honey mushroom grows and varies between cream and red colors. Autumn honey mushrooms are very popular among chefs, because this particular species is considered the most delicious and aromatic of its family. Varieties of the genus also include winter, summer and meadow honey agarics.

The fruiting body contains many useful microelements necessary for the normal functioning of the body, including phosphorus, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, as well as valuable amino acids and fiber. In addition, the product contains B vitamins and vitamin C, E and PP.