In the forest you can find many and all kinds of delicious and edible mushrooms, which unfortunately cannot be found all year round.
In this advice, we'll talk specifically about Chanterelle Mushrooms and how you can dry them at home. Chanterelle is not only a delicious mushroom, but also contains many useful substances that are of great importance for a person's good health.
The specific thing about these mushrooms is that mold never forms on them, because their specific taste protects them from pests. Therefore, when preparing chanterelle mushrooms for drying, you simply need to remove the contaminants from the soil.
However, you should not wash them, because water easily penetrates through their porous surface and they are no longer suitable for drying. If there is still a lot of dirt on them, just clean them gently with a damp cloth.
If the Chanterelle mushroom is not very large, you can dry it whole, but if you get larger specimens of this mushroom, you can cut them into halves or quarters.
So - let's see how you can dry chanterelle mushrooms at home.
1. Natural way of drying chanterelle mushrooms
This type of drying can be done in two ways: the first is to string them on a thread and hang them or arrange them on paper in a cabinet chosen for the purpose. If you prefer the first way, you should string them on a thick thread and hang them in a place where it is dry and has good ventilation.
When the temperature is right, the mushrooms will be ready in about 10 days. It is mandatory to protect dried mushrooms from flies and other types of insects when drying. For this purpose, you can use either a cloth or gauze.
The other method differs from the previous one, because the mushrooms are no longer strung and hanging, but are placed on a horizontal surface that is covered with paper. You can put them either on the floor or in some kind of cabinet. You should not place them on newspaper, because they contain lead, which is used in printer's ink;
2. Drying chanterelle mushrooms in the oven
To do this, you need to place them in a tray lined with baking paper or foil. If you have a lot of mushrooms, do not dry them at once, but several times. The oven is heated to 50°C and then the mushrooms are placed inside. The oven door should be slightly open to allow excess moisture to escape and this speeds up the drying process. After 1.5-2 hours, the temperature is increased to 60°C and the mushrooms are kept for another 40-50 minutes. The tray is then removed and the mushrooms are stirred. Put them back in the oven and dry them, until they're fully dried. We cannot say for sure how long it will take to dry them in an oven, because it depends on several factors. How big the mushrooms are, their age, how much they are in quantity and in what conditions they were collected;
3. Drying chanterelle mushrooms in a microwave
If you have collected a small amount of mushrooms and they need to be dried in the fastest possible way, this is where the microwave oven comes to the rescue. The chanterelle is folded thinly, placed on a plate and then placed in the microwave. It dries between 5 and 10 minutes. This procedure is repeated as much as it is needed, until the mushrooms are completely dried. However, you must be careful towards the end, so that the mushrooms do not burn;
4. Drying chanterelle mushrooms in an electric dryer
If you have an electric dehydrator for fruit and vegetables, drying chanterelle mushrooms will become very easy. The advantages of drying in electric dryers is that there is minimal consumption of time and energy. How long it will take to dry the mushrooms depends on the characteristics of the device. Some dryers have a special program for drying mushrooms, which takes between 7 and 8 hours. What you need to do is simply select the program you want and switch on the appliance.
With dried chanterelle mushrooms, you can prepare not only aromatic chanterelle mushroom risotto, but also all delicious recipes for:
- or mushroom pizza.
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