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Ilmaki mushrooms are ordinary oyster mushrooms, only slightly different in color and some characteristics. Fruiting bodies are edible, suitable for winter harvesting, conservation, cooking. Ilmaks grow in nature on trees, and if desired, the mushroom picker can grow them on their own at home on a prepared substrate.
What does ilmak mushroom look like?
Translated from Latin, the name of the mushroom sounds like Pleurotus golden. In the people, oyster mushroom is called lemon, yellow, golden. However, more often the mushroom is called ilmovik or ilmak. The name is not given by chance. Oyster mushrooms of this species usually grow on elm, a common tree in the Far East. Fruit bodies populate the trunk or stump in groups of up to 30 pieces. The family has no pattern of location. Ilmaks simply parasitize the tree in compact aggregates. Mushrooms are rare.
Yellow oyster mushroom grows in groups of about 30 mushrooms.
If you compare the photo and description of ilmak mushrooms, you can get a little confused. Most often in the image you can see beautiful yellow hats, but in reality they are almost white. There is nothing out of the ordinary here. It’s just that young ilmaks are more often seen in the photo. The surface of their hats is really lemon yellow. The shape is flat. There is a small depression in the middle. As the oyster mushroom matures, the yellowness gradually disappears. The mushroom cap becomes white.
In nature, ilmaks grow large. The diameter of the cap reaches from 5 to 30 cm. The spore-bearing layer consists of white plates. Sometimes they take on a pinkish tint. The plates are even, compacted among themselves, smoothly pass from the cap to the leg. Mushroom pickers love ilmak for its fleshy pulp. The younger the oyster mushroom, the juicier and softer it is. The pulp is rougher in the area where the mushroom cap passes into the stem. Experienced mushroom pickers recognize the type of oyster mushroom by its floury aroma.
The leg of the ilmak is cream-colored. In large fruiting bodies, it is able to reach a length of 8 cm, a width of 3 cm. In the family, oyster mushrooms can be found on a long, elongated stem or completely without it. Such a structure is due to the adaptation of ilmaks to environmental conditions.
Where does the ilmak mushroom grow?
In the wild, ilmaks grow throughout the warm season, usually from May to September. Sometimes the harvest can be harvested even in early December. On the territory of Our Country, a massive growth of oyster mushrooms is observed in Primorye, as well as in the southern Amur region. They go to the forests for mushrooms, where cedar, elm and other broad-leaved trees grow. Accumulations of yellow fruiting bodies are looked for on the trunks of weak or fallen trees, stumps.
Oyster mushroom can be found on stumps, growing and fallen tree trunks.
On the video you can see how ilmaks grow in Primorye:
Is it possible to eat yellow oyster mushrooms
Ilmak is considered a completely edible mushroom. The pulp has excellent taste. Mushroom pickers value oyster mushrooms collected in the forest rather than grown on a substrate. Wild fruiting bodies are more fragrant. The most popular recipe for ilmaks with potatoes among mushroom pickers, where mushrooms are fried with onions after picking, and then added to fried potatoes. Delicious oyster mushroom marinated, dried, salted.
Yellow oyster mushrooms look appetizing even growing on a tree.
In adult mushrooms, the stem is often thrown away. This is not due to her toxicity, but simply because she is rude. If the ilmak is quite old, then a part of the cap is removed, where it fuses with the stem.
How to cook ilmaki mushrooms
There are many recipes for making oyster mushrooms. The most popular are fried mushrooms on their own and with potatoes, pickled, salted, stewed. It turns out delicious soup with ilmaks, sauce, pizza or pie, where fruiting bodies are used for filling.
It is advisable to boil wild mushrooms for about 10-15 minutes before cooking.
Before preparing the dish, the mushrooms must be prepared. The procedure begins with cleaning. It is not necessary to remove the skin or spore-bearing layer from ilmaks. Simply with the help of a brush and a knife, they clean off the dirt, cut off the damaged areas and the lower part of the leg. Fruit bodies are washed and loaded into a container of salted water so that they do not turn black. Check them again before cooking. If dark spots appear, they are cut off with a knife blade.
Ilmak mushroom recipes
Every housewife has her favorite recipe for making ilmak. Moreover, mushrooms are not only eaten for pleasure, but also used for medicinal purposes.
Chopped ilmaks are a great salad ingredient
One such example is a popular tincture recipe that helps strengthen the immune system and avoid the formation of tumors. For cooking, you need to pour 50 g of crushed ilmaks into 0,5 liters of wine. The finished tincture is taken for cardiovascular diseases three times a day, 1 tbsp. l. To fight the tumor, mastopathy, 300 g of crushed ilmaks insist on 500 g of vodka. If you need a tincture just to strengthen the immune system, 100 g of oyster mushrooms are infused in a similar amount of vodka.
In almost all recipes, you need to boil ilmaks in a large amount of water. This is due to the fact that the mushroom releases a lot of juice during heat treatment. To cook oyster mushrooms, they are first poured with cold water. Salt and spices are added according to your taste. The duration of cooking after boiling water is 20-30 minutes. The larger and older the mushrooms, the longer they need to boil. Ready oyster mushrooms are discarded in a colander, give time to drain. Boiled mushrooms can be eaten immediately or used to prepare other dishes.
To fry ilmaki mushrooms, it is not necessary to pre-boil them. Mushrooms will turn out tasty, fragrant and not watery. However, fruiting bodies are prepared without boiling, if they are sure of their ecological cleanliness. For example, oyster mushrooms are grown independently on a substrate or collected in a forest far from roads and industrial enterprises. For frying, ilmaks with onion rings are placed in a heated pan with vegetable oil. To prevent all the juice from evaporating, cover with a lid. Fry for about 20 minutes until golden brown. Optionally, you can add vegetables or fried potatoes.
How to cook ilmaks for the winter
To enjoy mushrooms in winter, the housewives salt, pickle, and freeze them. You can dry ilmaks, but this method of storage is not very popular. Drying is often affected by insects, if stored improperly, it disappears, loses its taste.
How to salt ilmaks
Salted ilmaks compete with pickled mushrooms and are considered the best snack. A simple salting recipe is designed for 0,5 kg of mushrooms. Pour 2 liters of water into a stainless steel or enameled pan, add 50 g of salt, add mushrooms and cook for up to 7 minutes. Ready ilmaks are thrown into a colander.
Pickles are one of the best winter harvesting methods.
For salting, a brine is prepared from 300 ml of water and 1 tbsp. l. salt. From spices add 4 leaves of laurel and blackcurrant, 4 peas of black pepper. The brine is brought to a boil, boiled for 5 minutes, allowed to cool. The liquid is filtered through cheesecloth, boiled again without spices and allowed to cool. Mushrooms drained in a colander are placed in a sterilized jar. Ilmaks are poured with brine, covered with a lid, sent to the refrigerator. You can taste after a week.
How to pickle ilmaki
Pickled mushrooms are considered the #1 appetizer. Ilmaki are delicious in their pure form and as a salad ingredient. To pickle the harvested crop, you need to prepare the marinade. For 1 liter of water add 1 tsp. sugar, 0,5 tbsp. l. salt and 1 tbsp. l. vinegar. From spices take bay leaf, black peppercorns. After boiling water, add all the ingredients along with the mushrooms, simmer for about 30 minutes. Ilmaks in the marinade are given a little time to cool, laid out in jars, covered with lids. When the mushrooms are completely cool, they are sent to the refrigerator.
For pickling, it is optimal to use jars with a volume of 0,5 l
How to freeze ilmaks
It is best to freeze oyster mushrooms, pre-boiled. Once defrosted, they are immediately ready for use. Boiled fruit bodies are given time to drain in a colander. Each mushroom is individually laid out on a tray, sent to the freezer for 4 hours. When oyster mushrooms become “glassy”, they are packaged in bags or plastic boxes, sent back to the freezer for long-term storage.
Freezing is best stored in plastic boxes.
Ilmoviki can be frozen fresh, without boiling. Fruit bodies need to be cleaned, washed quickly under water so that they are not saturated with moisture and dried. Further actions are the same as with boiled oyster mushrooms.
False twins of golden lemon oyster mushroom
Yellow oyster mushroom has no false twins. There are fruiting bodies similar in morphology, but they have nothing in common with ilmaks.
Collection rules
Mushroom picking should not be carried out near roads, garbage dumps, industrial enterprises. Fruiting bodies are twisted, holding on to the hat. If the family is large, it is better to cut the splice with a sharp knife so as not to damage the mycelium. It is undesirable to take strongly old mushrooms. They can be wormy. In addition, the pulp of such fruiting bodies is rough and difficult to process.
It is better to put the harvested crop in a container or basket
Growing lemon oyster mushrooms
In the photo, lemon oyster mushroom grows on a bed loaded with a substrate. However, growing mushrooms in bags is most often practiced. The substrate is prepared from straw, hay, seed husks, sawdust. Organics are poured with water, boiled for 2 hours, left to drain and cool. A substrate is considered good, from which, when clenched with a fist, a few drops of water are released.
At home, yellow oyster mushrooms are grown on a substrate
Buy mycelium for planting. Temporarily store it in the refrigerator, but do not freeze. When the substrate is ready, it is laid out in plastic bags. Sprinkle mycelium in layers. You need to work with gloves so as not to infect the infection. The bags sown with the substrate are placed in a dark, cool room. After about 18-20 days, the mycelium will grow. Slits are made on the bags with a knife through which the fruiting bodies will appear. Mushrooms provide humidity of about 80%, air temperature up to + 25 оC, good ventilation. Caps are sprayed 1-2 times a day with water at room temperature.
With proper cultivation, the mushroom picker collects mushrooms for 6 months. The first two waves of the harvest are considered the most productive. The result is considered successful if it was possible to collect 1 kg of oyster mushrooms from 3 kg of mycelium.
Conclusion
Ilmaki mushrooms can be grown in winter, when there is a heated room. However, most often mushroom pickers do this in the warm season. Space heating costs are not always profitable if there is no good market for profit.