Honey mushrooms, salted for the winter

Honey mushrooms, salted for the winter at home, cannot be praised enough. And if there are potatoes on the table, and a glass of “hot” next to it, then life is completely good. It seems to me that it’s a shame that we don’t have such a sign: the more mushrooms you pickle, the better the winter will be. And it will be tastier, for sure. Especially if you make mushroom caviar with pickles, or deliciously pickle honey mushrooms .

Avid mushroom pickers use two main methods of pickling honey mushrooms - hot and cold, with their own advantages and disadvantages. Which is preferable, each of you will decide for yourself; the proposed selection contains everything you need. In addition to the simplest, ancient versions of pickling, there are recipes for homemade preparations adapted to modern realities - in jars, with many spices and seasonings, including not too familiar ones.

Honey mushrooms, salted for the winter - a simple recipe in jars

As a rule, hot-salted mushrooms are rolled up in jars. Keep the simplest, but despite this, one of the best options.

Take:

Mushrooms – 10 kg.
Salt – 400 gr.
Bay leaf – 10 pcs.
Black pepper – 20 peas.

Step by step recipe:

Prepare mushrooms for processing. Cut off the common mycelium, divide the honey mushrooms one at a time. Remove debris. Rinse the mushrooms thoroughly in several waters. Divide large honey mushrooms into parts, or even better, put only the caps for pickling, and make caviar . Leave small and medium mushrooms whole.

Fill with water and let it cook. Wait for it to boil, cook for exactly 5 minutes. Then drain the first broth.

Pour a new portion of water into the pan with mushrooms. Salt, throw in bay leaf and pepper. Boil again. Reduce the fire power. Cook at a gentle simmer for 30 minutes.

Place the workpiece in jars, close with regular nylon or screw caps.

Place the preserved food upside down and wrap it warmly. Leave to cool slowly for a day. Then take it to a permanent storage location.

Preparing mushrooms for pickling

All mushrooms, including honey mushrooms, cannot be stored for a long time in freshly cut form. Therefore, when you get home, immediately start processing them. Otherwise, they may break, become wormy and deteriorate while in the basket:

First, you need to sort out the mushrooms and discard dry and wormy specimens. Broken pieces should also be thrown away.
Then it is necessary to clean up the debris (leaves, soil and other elements of contamination). The edge of the leg must also be removed by cutting it off. Adhered debris comes off well if you place the mushroom “catch” in cold water and let it sit for several hours. To prevent acidification from occurring, the water should be changed periodically.
After all cleaning procedures, the mushrooms must be thoroughly washed. As a result, the water should remain completely clear. They review it again for unnoticed bad copies, removing them if necessary.
Honey mushrooms are not sorted by size, since they do not differ much in size. Adult mushrooms are divided into stems and caps, which, in turn, are cut into smaller pieces. Small specimens are salted whole.

Delicious recipes for pickled oyster mushrooms at home

Delicious honey mushrooms, hot salted with garlic

Add some herbs and spices, and you have salted mushrooms with a completely different taste, unlike the basic one described above.

You will need:

Honey mushrooms – 2 kg.
Garlic – 10 cloves.
Dill – 3 sprigs.
Salt – 60 gr.
Bay leaf – 3 leaves.
Sweet peas – 10 pcs.
Cloves – 7 buds.
Black pepper – 7 peas.

How to pickle:

Prepare the mushrooms for pickling - wash them thoroughly, changing the water several times, dividing them one to one.
Cut off the stems of large honey mushrooms and use them for other appetizers, since they are too harsh for pickling.
Fill with water and cook over full heat. When the contents boil, cook for 5 minutes. Be sure to remove the foam.
Discard the mushrooms and rinse under running water. Wait for the liquid to drain.
Boil the brine in a separate pan. To do this, pour a liter of water, add salt, throw in black peppercorns and clove buds.
Throw honey mushrooms into boiling brine. Cook at a gentle simmer for 30-40 minutes.
Turn off the burner. Without draining the brine, leave to cool.
Cut the garlic cloves into slices.
For further salting you will need a pan or other container. Place dill sprigs or umbrellas on the bottom.
Lay out layers of honey mushrooms, topping each layer with garlic, bay leaves, and allspice peas.
Pour the brine over the display, making sure it is completely covered with liquid.
Cover with a flat plate, set any pressure.
Place the workpiece in a cold place for 2 weeks. During this time, the mushrooms will be sufficiently salted.
Distribute the salted mushrooms into sterile jars and fill with brine. Close with nylon lids. Store in the cellar.

The safety of mushrooms will be greatly increased, and their shelf life for the winter will increase somewhat if you first boil the mushrooms before pickling.

How to select and prepare mushrooms

They should be selected at the stage of collection in the forest. It is not recommended to collect honey mushrooms with a darkened lower part - these are already aged saprophytes. Such an unpleasant color does not wash out in water. The pickle will not have a very attractive appearance and taste.

It’s very good if you come across several fallen trees with mushrooms whose caps have not yet opened. They have a very thick leg and in appearance they can be mistaken for boletus mushrooms.

Before starting cooking, or better yet in the forest, the fungi are poured out and sorted. Be sure to ensure that bugs are removed from under the hats, otherwise there will be hordes of flying bugs on the walls of the apartment. It is better to wash off fungi outdoors under running water. But first they are soaked in salted water, light pressure is applied - this will allow the beetles to crawl out and fly away without hindrance.

Then each fungus is washed under running water and specimens with broken caps or wormy legs are removed. The washing operation is repeated several times, discarding damaged mushrooms and removing insects.

Advice! If you have to buy mushrooms, you should not save money and buy old mushrooms with darkened cap partitions - such savings will lead to the need to buy a new batch of honey mushrooms or to preparing tasteless pickles for the winter.

Honey mushrooms, salted cold (under pressure)

Salting honey mushrooms in a cold way without brine with garlic and dill is also very popular.
The mushrooms will be dense, crispy, and amazingly tasty. Salt in glass or ceramic containers.

Required:

Honey mushrooms – 1 kg.
Bay leaf – 3-5 leaves.
Black pepper - to taste.
Garlic – 3 cloves.
Cloves – 1/3 teaspoon.
Dill, chopped - 2 large spoons.
Salt – 30 gr.
Sunflower oil – 2-3 tablespoons.

Step by step recipe:

Cut off the mycelium, divide the honey mushrooms. Wash thoroughly to remove all dirt.

Boil in lightly salted water for 15 minutes, drain in a colander, and rinse.

Chop the garlic.

Chop the dill.

Place some spices at the bottom of the pickling container.

Make a layer of mushrooms.

Salt and sprinkle with dill.

Repeat alternating mushrooms with herbs and spices until you run out. Sprinkle salt on top.

Cover the workpiece with a flat plate. Put oppression.

After a day, carefully mix the contents. Pour some oil on top.

Press down again with the weighted plate. After three days, honey mushrooms can be tried, but they will be completely ready for use only after 14 days.

How to salt frozen mushrooms at home

Sometimes housewives use pickling frozen honey mushrooms, especially if they need to make a small-sized appetizer. This method can be found in every kitchen, but you need to know how to salt frozen mushrooms.

Frozen honey mushrooms – 1.5 kg;
Salt – 2 tbsp. l.;
Garlic – 3 cloves;
Cloves – 2 sprigs;
Bay leaf – 2 pcs.;
Dill seeds – 1 tsp;
Black and allspice grains – 4 pcs.

A detailed description will show how to pickle honey mushrooms at home:

First you need to defrost the fruiting bodies by transferring them from the freezer to the refrigerator for 10-12 hours (preferably overnight).
If boiled mushrooms were frozen, then heat treatment is not required. However, if you froze the honey mushrooms raw, then they should be boiled for 15-20 minutes.
Place bay leaf, dill seeds, pepper, cloves and garlic cloves, cut into pieces, on the bottom of the prepared bowl.
Place honey mushrooms on top and add salt, then stir.
Cover with a napkin, put pressure on top and take it to a cool place for further salting for 10-15 days. If desired, after the specified period, you can distribute the snack into sterilized jars.

Very tasty honey mushrooms, salted with onions

An excellent snack for every day and to include in a holiday menu. Please note that the calculation of spices is given for one liter of water.

The amount of ingredients is given for 2 liter jars.

Compound:

Mushrooms - 4 kg.
Onion - head.
Garlic - head.
Lavrushka – 6-8 pcs.
Dill umbrellas (or seeds) - to taste.
Cherry and currant leaves.
Cloves – 10 buds.
Sweet peas – 10 pcs.

For brine per 1 liter of water:

Salt – 2 large spoons.
Dill seeds - a teaspoon.
Allspice – 3 peas.
Cloves – 2 buds.

Preparation:

Carefully sort out the honey mushrooms, wash them, and divide them into individual mushrooms. Chop if necessary.
Place in a saucepan, fill with water. Place the whole onion, add dill seeds, and salt. I advise you to place the seeds in a fabric bag to make it easier to remove from the pan after cooking.
Cook the mushrooms for 30 minutes from the moment of boiling. Afterwards, remove the dill seeds; they will no longer be needed.
Throw garlic, dill umbrellas, cherry and currant leaves, laurel leaves, allspice, and cloves to the bottom of the jars.
Fill the jars tightly with cooked mushrooms. Pour out the broth in which the mushrooms were cooked.
Separately, prepare fresh brine. For 2 liter jars, take a liter of water, add everything that is indicated in the recipe. Boil for about 5 minutes until the salt is completely dissolved.
Pour over the mushrooms, let cool without covering. Then seal tightly with a nylon lid and place in the cold for winter storage.
After 1-2 weeks, the pickling will be ready.

To prevent mold from appearing on the surface of honey mushrooms in jars or pans, soak a piece of gauze or bandage in vinegar and cover the top. Update the tool periodically.

Basic salting methods

There are several ways to prepare salted autumn mushrooms. Cold and hot salting are considered basic. Both of these methods involve the use of a large wooden barrel or enamel container in which the fruiting bodies will be placed.

If there is no suitable container, you can salt honey mushrooms in jars. In any case, such a preparation must be stored in the refrigerator or cool basement. For those who do not have suitable storage space, it is better to marinate mushrooms. Then they can be stored even at room temperature.

Ingredients

Many recipes for preparing salted wild mushrooms involve the use of numerous spices. In this sense, honey mushrooms are an exception. They have a very delicate taste, so the pronounced aroma of spices and seasonings will only worsen the preparation.

Note! Each cooking recipe requires its own set of ingredients. To make the preparation truly tasty, you must strictly follow the given proportions and cooking recommendations.

The delicate taste and aroma of honey mushrooms goes well with garlic and dill. And you can also add coriander, rosemary and cloves. Other spices are not usually used.

Honey mushrooms with horseradish according to an old Russian recipe without vinegar

An old recipe for pickling, with horseradish, cherry and currant leaves.

Necessary:

Mushrooms – 5 kg.
Garlic – 3-4 heads.
Horseradish, root - to taste.
Lavrushka – 5 sheets.
Salt – 200 gr.
Currant and cherry leaves - several pieces.
Peppercorns – 10 pcs.
Dill umbrellas – 2-4 pcs.

How to add salt:

Rinse the prepared mushrooms in several waters. Slice the garlic cloves. Peel the horseradish root and grate it on a coarse grater.
Place honey mushrooms in a pan in layers, alternating with seasonings and spices. Don't forget to salt the layers.
Cover with clean double gauze, cover with a flat dish and press down with pressure. Be patient for 2 months for the pickling to develop its real flavor.

Useful tips from experienced housewives

Experienced housewives have long adopted recipes for preparing various products for future use, and honey mushrooms were no exception.

Here are some recommendations for properly pickling mushrooms for the winter :

To get rid of worms and prevent mushrooms from turning brown, soak them in cold water with lemon juice and salt.
You cannot use a metal base for oppression, as due to the oxidation of the metal, toxic substances will enter the brine.
You can make bouillon cubes from the remaining mushroom broth: pour the liquid into an ice tray and then freeze.
Caps are best suited for pickling, and if stems are used, they need to be trimmed by 1/3.

Salting and pickling honey mushrooms at home is easy. Just follow the recommendations from experienced housewives and maintain the required proportions. And you will always have a delicious snack on the table that relatives and guests will appreciate.

Instant salted mushrooms

Finally, I’ll spoil you with a recipe for quick-cooking honey mushrooms. After a week, you can enjoy the snack, but keep in mind that it is not suitable for storing for the winter.

Take:

Mushrooms – 5 kg.
Salt – 200 gr.
Bulb.
Garlic – 2 heads.
Coriander – 2-3 large spoons.
Black pepper – 1-2 large spoons.
Sweet peas – 10 pcs.
Dill – 5-10 umbrellas.
Laurel – 5-10 pcs.
Cloves – 5-10 pcs.
Cherry, currant leaves.

Salting:

Boil the honey mushrooms prepared for processing by adding a whole onion and salt to the brine. Place coriander, bay leaves, and cloves into a gauze bag. Tie it to the handle of the pan and lower it into the broth. Cooking time is half an hour. Then remove the spice bag.
Place garlic, dill umbrella, and leaves on the bottom of the jars.
Fill the top with honey mushrooms, pour hot brine. Roll up or close under a nylon lid.

Rules for storing salted mushrooms

Key points and rules for preserving the finished product:

The maximum shelf life of home canned food, regardless of type and recipe, is up to 9 months.
Pickles stored in containers with unsealed lids will need to be regularly inspected for mold. To do this, remove the pressure once every 2-3 days, rinse the napkin and treat it with boiling water. Remove any foam and excess brine.
Mushrooms stored in hermetically sealed jars can be placed in an apartment or other convenient place. But it is not recommended to place jars near heating appliances. Pickles in barrels are stored only in a cool place or refrigerator.

Tips and tricks

The best ones for pickling are autumn honey mushrooms; they are the most “meaty” and dense of all. Before cooking, they must be thoroughly washed so that not a grain of dirt or soil remains, since it contains the causative agents of botulism.

To some extent, salt and vinegar neutralize the botulinum bacillus, but vinegar is not added to salted honey mushrooms, so the washing condition should be carried out especially carefully.

It’s not so scary if the brine in which honey mushrooms are boiled is over-salted, so the dosage of salt in the recipe can be increased, but in no case reduced.

The smell of honey mushrooms is not very pronounced, so spices are often used when preparing them. Usually they take allspice and black peppercorns, cloves and bay leaves.

Quite often, mature dill umbrellas, peeled and cut garlic cloves, pieces of horseradish root and its leaves, as well as blackcurrant, cherry or oak leaves are added.

It is not at all necessary to use all the aromatic additives at once; their combinations can be varied to suit your own taste.

Before serving, salted mushrooms are sprinkled with chopped onions and seasoned with unrefined vegetable oil or sour cream - the result is a wonderful appetizer. They can also be added to a vinaigrette and served with fried or boiled potatoes.

If you soak salted mushrooms a little in water and then fry them together with onions, you will get a hearty hot dish, almost as good in taste as roasted fresh mushrooms.

When do the first summer, meadow and field honey mushrooms appear, when to collect them?

Meadow honey fungus is able to grow even in very wet soils.
Honey mushrooms are a type of mushroom that begins to grow intensively as soon as the ground warms up well. In regions where the night temperature remains stably at +15, the first honey mushrooms appear in the month of May. And although there are still not very many of them during this period, if you know the places, then at the end of spring you can open the mushroom season.

Moreover, honey mushrooms, unlike their other relatives, do not like to change their place of growth. As practice shows, if they settle in a certain place, they appear there as soon as the time comes. Moreover, in the scientific community they are called invaders because they can literally triple their colony in just a couple of years.

This means that every year you can collect more and more honey mushrooms from the same place. Of course, provided that nature and man do not interfere with their growth and reproduction. As for when to collect this type of mushroom, you can do this from May to November, just taking into account a few recommendations.

So:

Pick mushrooms not in sunny weather, but immediately after rain (moisture makes honey mushrooms more juicy and tasty).
Try to put mushrooms with a whole stem in the basket, because this is the only way you can understand whether there is a thickening on it (this is a sign of toxicity).
If honey mushrooms have pronounced peeling on their caps, it means they are very old. It is better not to take such mushrooms as they will seem dry after cooking.

Mushroom caviar from meadow mushrooms: recipe

Mushroom caviar from meadow mushrooms
If it turns out that you have collected old honey mushrooms, then try making aromatic mushroom caviar from them. Since in this case you will add other components to them, this small flaw will not be noticeable in the finished dish.

The only thing you should take into account when preparing such a dish is that when cooked, honey mushrooms shrink very much in size. In view of this, if in the end you want to get the most pronounced mushroom taste and aroma, then remember that to prepare caviar you will need to take 1.5 boiled mushrooms.

Products:

Honey mushrooms – 1.5 kg
Carrots – 150 g
Onion - 150 g
Vegetable oil - 100 g
Salt and pepper to taste

Recipe:

At the initial stage, carry out preliminary preparation of honey mushrooms, and then boil them
When they are ready, proceed to the main stage of preparing caviar.
Peel and finely dice the onion and grate the carrots
Pour oil into a frying pan and first simmer the onions and carrots in it
When they give off their aroma to the oil, add honey mushrooms to them
Cover everything with a lid and fry over medium heat for another 15 minutes.
After this, the resulting mass will need to be blended with a blender or scrolled through a meat grinder
Cooked caviar can be stored in the refrigerator for no more than 3 days

Answers to frequently asked questions

Honey mushrooms turned black during cooking, what does this mean?

Honey mushrooms begin to turn black even before cooking, during cleaning. This is a natural oxidation reaction of mushrooms in air. Nothing wrong with that.

How to identify false honey mushrooms during cooking?

It's better to play it safe and do it before cooking. It is worth paying attention to the cap and stem of the mushroom. The genuine ones have a cap covered with small scales, while the false ones have a smooth cap. But there is one caveat. Old honey mushrooms also have a smooth cap.

To avoid mistakes, pay attention to its color. An unnatural, too bright color of the cap is a sign of a false mushroom. The original leg has a “ring”. During any heat treatment, the false fungus gives off a moldy smell. The real ones have their own natural mushroom aroma.

How much salt should I add when cooking honey mushrooms?

It is recommended to add half a tablespoon of salt to 1 liter of water.

Why do honey mushrooms turn yellow when cooked, what does this mean?

If the fruiting bodies acquire a yellowish tint during cooking, this is not a clear sign of false mushrooms. It is worth paying attention to their legs and smell. The real ones have a characteristic “ring” on the stem, and the smell when cooked is mushroomy and rich. Most often, summer honey mushrooms acquire this color when cooked. It is worth remembering that in addition to this, the color is influenced by the collection location and soil.

What is the smell of honey mushrooms?

The true smell can only be felt as a result of heat treatment without adding spices. The aroma is buttery, mushroomy and very rich.

If you cook false honey fungus, what happens?

You can distinguish false fruiting bodies from real ones during cooking. Before cooking, you should pay attention to the appearance of the mushroom.

If you didn’t overlook it, and there was a suspicious mushroom on your plate, it’s not worth the risk, especially for inexperienced mushroom pickers.

It is worth eating only those that do not cause any suspicion. False ones have a bitter taste, but it is dangerous to taste them.

How to preserve the color of mushrooms?

To preserve the natural yellow-brown color, you need to add vinegar or lemon juice to previously prepared salted water. For 2 liters of water, it is enough to squeeze a quarter of a lemon.

How many times do honey mushrooms boil?

On average, mushrooms lose 2/3 of their volume when cooked. And during frying, you can clearly observe how the accumulated liquid evaporates.

Should honey mushrooms be soaked?

It is worth relying on the appearance of the mushrooms. There is no need to soak young and clean mushrooms. Simply peel them, rinse them under cold water and boil them.

If the appearance of the fruiting bodies indicates that they may be wormy, in this case the honey mushrooms should be soaked before heat treatment.

Is it necessary to boil honey mushrooms before frying them?

In order not to lose the rich taste and smell of honey mushrooms and to avoid health problems after consumption, it is recommended to boil them in salted water before frying for about 10 minutes. Frying without cooking is not recommended.

How to check honey mushrooms for edibility?

Before checking, you should pay attention to the following details:

Hat. In real mushrooms it is covered with small scales, in false mushrooms it is smooth.
Leg. The original leg has a “ring”.
The smell is mushroomy and rich. When cooking false fruiting bodies, it is difficult not to smell the smell of mold and rot.

How to clean honey mushrooms?

For cleaning, use a well-sharpened knife and a small soft brush.

Cleaning is carried out as follows:

Visually inspect the mushrooms for rot. If there are any places, carefully cut them off. Also be sure to remove the base of the leg.
Use a previously prepared brush to walk along the leg of the honey mushroom so that no small grains of sand remain.
Remove the film under the cap. This can be done by carefully prying it with the tip of a knife.
After the procedures, rinse with cold running water and cut. You can cut them the way you like, but usually this is done in strips.

Is it possible to fry honey mushrooms without boiling?

You can do without cooking only if the mushrooms were collected far from the roadway. Do not forget that fruiting bodies can absorb dirt and harmful components. It’s better not to risk it and spend an extra few minutes boiling them.

Useful properties of honey mushrooms

Like other mushrooms, honey mushrooms contain protein and amino acids.
For better digestibility of this natural product, they should be thoroughly boiled before use. The huge amount of phosphorus contained in these mushrooms allows you to replace fish products and completely provide the body with the minerals required to strengthen bones. Zinc and copper, which honey mushrooms are rich in, contribute to the good maintenance of cell regeneration in the human body. The various beneficial properties of these gifts of nature may vary depending on their subspecies.

Honey mushrooms, having remarkable antiseptic properties, even cure Staphylococcus aureus. These beneficial qualities are enhanced in tandem with garlic.