Drying chestnut boletus - this is how you can keep it longer

The best methods for drying chestnut bulbs

Clean and prepare chestnuts

The chestnut boletus is a typical mycorrhizal fungus of the spruce, but usually never appears where porcini mushrooms grow. Due to its unwetted handle and the blueing flesh, it can be easily distinguished from the “king of mushrooms” as well as from other boletus. Chestnut boletus can often be found in coniferous and mixed forests between June and November, but you have to be quick: maggots, snails and other forest animals also like to eat this mushroom. So only take crunchy, not too eaten specimens with you and also check them in the forest for maggot damage - otherwise you could get a nasty surprise at home. The mushrooms should be cleaned as fresh as possible and prepared for drying:

Cut away eating and other damaged areas.
Thoroughly clean the mushrooms with a brush and cloth
To dry certain mushrooms should not be washed.
Exception: they are very dirty.
Here you can shower them briefly and vigorously
and then dry well.

Three methods of drying chestnut bulbs

Then the mushrooms can be dried, for which he gives different methods. Only properly dried mushrooms can be stored and can in principle be stored indefinitely. Take the test: If the mushroom discs can still be bent without breaking, they have to be dried further.

Air-dry the chestnut boletus

This method is not recommended due to the risk of mold.

Dry in the oven

On the other hand, drying in the oven is quicker and without major losses: lay the mushroom slices loosely side by side on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Dry them for at least five hours at temperatures between 50 and a maximum of 70 ° C. This works best in a convection oven. So that the moisture can escape, clamp a wooden spoon between the oven door and the oven.

Drying in a dehydrator / drying oven

If you often dry mushrooms, but also herbs, fruit and vegetables, it is worth buying an automatic dehydrator or drying oven.

Tips

Do not confuse the chestnut bolet growing in the forest with the so-called “brown caps”. This is the trade name of mushroom spawn of the type Red-brown Giant Trümmling, which - in contrast to the chestnut boletus - you can also grow in the garden at home.