How to process champignons before cooking: expert advice

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

In this article we will talk about how to process champignons before cooking, how to do it right. We will tell you how to collect forest champignons, how to clean and fry them. And we will also answer the most exciting questions, in particular: is it necessary to clean champignons before cooking?

Need for processing

Mushrooms are tasty but tricky. Their collection, processing and cooking must be treated with extreme caution. Sometimes experienced mushroom pickers are lost in the question of the use of one or another type of forest product. After all, mushrooms are poorly digested and difficult to digest in the body. A poor-quality one caught in a frying pan can cause not only digestive problems, but also serious poisoning.

For these reasons, mushrooms are usually carefully cleaned, sorted and processed. Many of them require special attention. Each fungus must be examined, cleaned, film and dirt removed, boiled. We decided to talk more about the processing of mushrooms, drawing attention to the most popular in use.- Champignon. We have collected all the advice of experts and are ready to tell you.

Selective preparation

The question of champignons has been around for a long time. On the one hand, the nature of this fungus is little studied, and the unknown can carry a huge danger. On the other hand, champignons are most often bought in stores, and they come there from greenhouses. This suggests that the mushroom is grown artificially, under the supervision of specialists, and forest mud is unlikely to be found there. Should I wash, boil and clean these mushrooms? For this type of product, a good rinsing or cleaning is often sufficient, without cutting off the top film. After all, you need to process the champignons so that they do not lose their pleasant aroma and taste.

If you are not confident, afraid to pick mushrooms and process them yourself, mushrooms can be purchased at your table in the supermarket, for example, frozen mixtures or already washed and chopped.

A completely different thing - forest mushrooms. You have to fiddle around with them a lot. This process will be described below. And if you dare to pick champignons yourself, how to do it?

Where to collect champignons?

We will definitely talk about how to process mushrooms before cooking, but first of all I would like to remind you about the correct collection.

Of course, it is much easier to buy champignons in a store or on the market, they are there all year round and reproduce perfectly out of will, but for lovers of "quiet hunting" who are excitedpicking mushrooms, it would be useful to know a little about where and how to pick mushrooms.

First of all, champignons take root anywhere: in the forest lowlands, and in the mountains, and in the meadows. Most often they grow on manure heaps, in landfills, even in domestic ones. They like to breed near human dwellings and where cattle graze. It's all about well-drained soil. But sometimes stubborn champignons grow even from under the asph alt. Marvelous! After all, mushrooms look so weak.

Mushrooms hide under a layer of loose fertile soil. If you see a hat or a tubercle, do not be too lazy to pick up the soil, perhaps there is a whole family of mushrooms. If so, you should pay attention to all the bumps in this area.

In general, there are three types of champignons, they are divided according to their habitat:

• regular;
• meadow;
• forest.

All of them are united by the main feature - a large, thick hat, turning pink from the sun. Old mushrooms usually turn black, acquiring a dark, brown color. But the young are distinguished by a dense spherical hat and a pleasant color.

When to collect?

Mushrooms are harvested from April-May, when the weather is warm and humid. Meadow variety can be harvested until October. Forest mushrooms most often appear by August, this variety of champignons differs from its counterparts in light brown color with dark scales.

In the north, in cold areas, champignons germinate by the end of July, most often where the sun's rays fall. They do not last long, up tomid - late August.

Mushroom Picker Rules

In addition to how to process mushrooms before cooking after picking, every mushroom picker should know that in no case should they be collected in household dumps or along roads. Don't risk your he alth.

Also, you can not collect old mushrooms, champignons have the ability to absorb waste and toxic substances, accumulate harmful elements in themselves.

Their main difference from a false representative is that in an inedible mushroom, the flesh at the break turns red and has an unpleasant odor.

Be very careful picking mushrooms yourself.

Shop selection

Choosing champignons in the store, you simplify your life by the fact that you do not need to pick mushrooms yourself and you can be sure that they were grown and picked by professionals. But if you buy fresh champignons, you should understand that mushrooms could get damaged and deteriorate during transportation. It doesn’t matter how you process mushrooms before cooking, it’s better to play it safe and choose only high-quality mushrooms. To do this, when buying champignons, you should use our set of rules.

First of all, choose small mushrooms. And the question here is not only their ability to absorb, young ones are more dense, and they look more attractive on a plate.

Examine the appearance of the fungus, a quality body should not have blackening, dents. Its color is usually white or pinkish. To the touch, the hat is velvety, fungushas a matte sheen.

The cap should be tight on the stem to determine whether it is a young mushroom or not, look under it, the old mushroom will have dark plates, the young one will be pleasant, creamy.

Of course, the product should not have any foreign odors other than its natural one.

Having bought mushrooms in a store, you can store them at home for no more than 5-7 days, at a low temperature and in no case in a plastic bag.

How to properly process champignons before cooking?

Cleaning is one of the most exciting questions of all cooks. First of all, you should know that it is not necessary to clean the champignons, the main thing is to brush off the remnants of soil from them, renew the cut on the leg - and they are ready for cooking. But still I want to reinsure myself.

How to clean shop mushrooms before cooking? And how - self-assembled?

Small mushrooms do not need to be peeled. Mushrooms up to 2 cm belong to the small category. Their skin on the cap is so thin and barely perceptible that you run the risk of crushing the mushroom faster before removing the film. But those with a larger body - up to 5 cm, should be cleaned, their film is quite hard and can interfere with the dish. Brush off the dirt from them, pick up the film on the hat with the tip of a knife and pull it to the middle, so clean it with a cavity. Do not forget to renew the cut if the product has been lying for several days - the champignons begin to dry out from the stem.

If the mushroom is even larger, then it has a skirt, dark plates. They do no harm, but, from the point ofaesthetics, you can remove them. It does not affect the taste.

Do mushrooms need to be cleaned before cooking? Here is our answer: not necessarily, the main thing is to shake off all the dirt.

By the way, mushrooms that you picked in a clean meadow, away from roads and landfills, also do not need to be cleaned.

Wash or boil mushrooms?

Should mushrooms be boiled? Most mushrooms cannot be washed and boiled by draining the water several times. But mushrooms are the opposite. Of course, you can object, because mushrooms are such an unpredictable product, how can you use it if you do not boil it?

The fact is that champignons absorb water well, and they do it very quickly, which can adversely affect your dish. And from cooking, mushrooms can completely lose their taste, giving their qualities to the mushroom broth.

Of course, it is necessary to wash the champignons, you never know what chemicals could settle on them, but you should not soak and boil them.

It is better to rinse the mushrooms and put them quickly on a dry towel, so you do not spoil the taste of the mushrooms, and if possible clean them from contamination.

Frying champignons

So, we figured out whether it is necessary to clean the champignons before cooking, there is little left to do. Learn how to cook mushrooms. Most often they are fried for addition to julienne, salad, pie filling and just like that. So how long to fry champignons in a pan until cooked?

It takes 10-15 minutes until the champignon is fully cooked,this is enough to prepare a delicious meal. And if you add a spoonful of sour cream and give it another minute, then you don’t have to wait for the garnish at all.

Mushrooms cook very quickly, and if you are going to add them as an additional ingredient somewhere else, for example, you plan to bake chicken with mushrooms in pots, then you can give them a few minutes less. How much to fry champignons in a pan depends on the purpose for which you are frying them. And also on their size.

So we figured out how to process champignons before cooking, how to collect them and choose them in the supermarket, whether they should be washed and boiled, how to fry them. By following our rules, you can rest assured that proper selection and processing of mushrooms will protect you from poisoning or indigestion.