Look for porcini mushrooms properly
Ceps belong to the so-called mycorrhizal fungi that live in a symbiosis with the network of roots of certain tree species. So if you want to look specifically for boletus mushrooms in the forest, keep an eye out for extensive stands of spruce and oak. Especially in sparse trees with little overgrown soil, there is a good chance of finding boletus in the right season from May.
also read
- Store and keep porcini mushrooms properly
- Growing porcini mushrooms - experiments in your own garden
- Preserve porcini mushrooms properly and enjoy them all year round
Harvest and transport porcini mushrooms correctly
When looking for porcini mushrooms, you should go into the forest with the following equipment:
- Basket for transportation
- sharp knife for cleaning
- soft cotton cloth for cleaning and transport
- a detailed identification book
Even if porcini mushrooms correspond to their name, among mushrooms they have a firm fruiting body, they should nevertheless be transported very gently to the place of their processing. This is ideally done in a large basket in which the mushrooms do not press too much on each other. Always leave a few specimens at rich sites so that they can use their spores to ensure rich ceps finds in the future. In addition, in many countries there are upper limits for the maximum daily amount of porcini mushrooms collected for household use.
Prepare porcini mushrooms for drying
Either process porcini mushrooms immediately into tasty mushroom dishes, or prepare them for drying. Porcini mushrooms may remain edible for a few days after harvesting, but they also preserve their maximum taste when drying, as soon as possible after picking. You should never wash porcini mushrooms with water before drying, as this can severely lose the typical taste of these mushrooms. It is better to clean dirty mushroom caps with a cloth or a sharp knife before cutting them into slices and pieces about one to two centimeters thick to dry.
Gently dry porcini mushrooms for maximum taste
A common way to dry porcini mushrooms is to spread them out on a baking sheet in the sun. Ceps can also be dried in the oven, but the temperature should never exceed 50 degrees Celsius in order not to cook the mushrooms. The oven door can be held a little wide open with a wooden spoon handle so that moisture can escape from the mushrooms as best as possible. Alternatively, the pieces of boletus can be threaded with a needle and thread and hung up to dry near the oven. They are then stored in airtight screw-top jars and as dark as possible until they are used.
Tips & Tricks
A form of processing that is particularly widespread for porcini mushrooms is drying and grinding into so-called porcini mushroom flour. This can be used extremely practically in the kitchen to refine the flavor of sauces and mushroom soups.
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