How long does it take to cook mushrooms?
Very often, novice mushroom pickers ask the question: “How long to cook mushrooms?”
And they are surprised, and even offended, when they begin to ask counter questions:
- What mushrooms?
- Why cook?
- Boil in pre-treatment or in cooking?
Let’s figure it out.
Edible mushrooms do not need pre-boiling. You can start cooking them right away. For example, we can fry mushrooms, and then they can be immediately, raw, cut and put in a pan, or we can marinate, and then they are immediately poured with marinade, the cooking time depends on the specific recipe.
Wild mushrooms (self-picked mushrooms, not bought in a supermarket) are recommended to be boiled before cooking to minimize the impact of environmental factors. In such cases, mushrooms are boiled in a large amount of water.
Answer: Two or three minutes after full boil. Drain the broth, rinse the mushrooms and you can start cooking.
The “environmentally unfavorable” unequivocally include roadsides, where the soil has been saturated with tetraethyl lead – Pb (CH3CH2) 4 for decades – and agricultural fields, where nitrates, pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals have scattered in abundance. Former landfills, parking lots, abandoned industrial facilities, burial sites are also considered places of increased danger.
Sometimes edible mushrooms are boiled before cooking to reduce cooking time or to allow the mushrooms to reduce in size beforehand if the harvested crop does not fit in the pan.
In such cases, the mushrooms are boiled in a small amount of water to minimize flavor loss, and the decoction can be used to make mushroom soups.
As a pre-treatment, mushrooms are recommended to be cooked no more than:
- White mushrooms – 3 minutes
- Boletus and boletus – 4-5 min
- Mokhoviki – 5 min
- Russula – 5-6 min
- The oils — 5-6 min
- Honey mushrooms – 6-8 min
- Chanterelles – 7-10 min
- Morels – 10 min
- Mushrooms – 15 min
To quickly reduce the volume of mushrooms, experienced chefs recommend using not boiling, but scalding: chopped mushrooms are placed in a colander and poured with boiling water.
Sometimes it becomes necessary to boil the collected mushrooms in order to increase their shelf life. Raw, freshly picked mushrooms are not recommended to be stored for more than a day, even in the refrigerator. But if such mushrooms are processed (cleaned, washed and boiled), they can be stored for weeks.
In this case, the mushrooms should be boiled, as they say, “until cooked.” Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for at least 20 minutes.
Response: Remove the pan from the heat and wait half a minute – a minute. When the mushrooms are ready, they will begin to sink to the bottom of the pot..
For more guaranteed storage during cooking, you can add a little salt: 1 teaspoon (without a “slide”) per 1 liter of water.
Next, you need to let the mushrooms cool. We transfer the cooled mushrooms to jars, fill them with broth, close them with ordinary lids and put them in the refrigerator, on the “cold shelf”. You can store mushrooms boiled in this way for 2-3 weeks. You can use them in the same way as fresh mushrooms: fry, stew, make soups and hodgepodges.
Conditionally edible mushrooms are therefore called “conditionally edible”: they are edible only subject to certain conditions. In the description for such species, it is usually written like this: “The mushroom is edible after preliminary boiling.” The time of such boiling is usually also indicated in the description of the mushroom. The decoction always drains, it can not be used for cooking first courses.
When boiling conditionally edible mushrooms, you can follow one simple rule: for the first time, bring the mushrooms to a boil, boil for 2-3 minutes, immediately drain the broth, wash the mushrooms two or three times, then set to boil in clean water. And this will be considered the first boil.
For conditionally edible mushrooms, it is extremely important to strictly follow the recommendations. So, for example, if it is recommended to first soak the valu with a periodic change of water, and then boil it, then this is exactly what should be done, and not vice versa.
Folk practice knows many types of poisonous mushrooms that can be cooked and eaten without any visible harm to health. But think about it: is it really necessary to take risks?
There are poisons that are not destroyed by anything: neither boiling nor freezing, and they kill quite quickly (Pale Grebe). There are poisons that accumulate in the body for a long time, sometimes for years, before acting (the pig is thin) and also do not break down when boiled. Take care of yourself, there are so many good, edible mushrooms in the world!