How to properly freeze fresh, stewed, boiled, fried honey mushrooms for the winter: the best recipes. How to process fresh honey mushrooms before freezing?

AnyutaN — Sep 14th, 2021 Categories: Freezing

Tags: Frozen honey mushrooms, Freezing mushrooms

Honey mushrooms are very tasty mushrooms. They are ideal for both pickling and freezing. Frozen honey mushrooms are universal in their use. You can fry them, make soups from them, make caviar or mushroom sauces. Read about all the intricacies of properly freezing honey mushrooms for the winter in this article.

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Is it possible to freeze honey mushrooms for the winter at home?

Freezing honey mushrooms for the winter is not only possible, but very necessary, since they are a source of substances beneficial to the body. However, their composition is very diverse, and in order to preserve the beneficial microelements they contain (such as iron, copper, zinc and magnesium), freezing must be done correctly. When choosing a preparation method, you need to immediately decide for which dishes the honey mushrooms will be used, since depending on the chosen method, their consistency will differ.

Thus, frozen honey mushrooms can be used to prepare a variety of:

• soups;
• salads;
• stew;
• pie fillings;
• and much more.

In fact, properly frozen mushrooms have the same properties as fresh ones, only they can be eaten not only during the season, but throughout the year.

Collection, cleaning and sorting of honey mushrooms

When collecting, it is important to remember that in addition to tasty and healthy honey mushrooms, there are “false honey mushrooms” that are poisonous (or simply inedible). Therefore, the main rule when collecting or buying honey mushrooms is: “If you’re not sure, don’t take it.”

After collection, it's time to clean. It is advisable to do preliminary cleaning in the forest - remove soil, needles and small leaves, throw away wormy or rotten specimens.

Whether or not to wash mushrooms for freezing depends on how exactly they will be frozen.

Another important point in preparing honey mushrooms for freezing is sorting. In addition to the fact that you need to select as many whole mushrooms as possible (not beaten, not starting to deteriorate, not eaten by worms, etc.), it is most convenient to sort them by size - large to large, small to small, in order to further simplify the cooking process.

Preparing honey mushrooms for freezing

The preparation process greatly depends on the chosen method of freezing mushrooms, since each method has its own characteristics.

The first stages of preparation - collecting and sorting by size - are the same for all methods. The differences begin at the cleaning stage, while the initial cleaning is quite universal and consists of removing visible dirt from the surface of the mushroom. But washing honey mushrooms is not possible in all cases:

1. If mushrooms are intended to be frozen raw (or dried), then they cannot be washed; Dry dirt is removed using a knife or napkin. If you cannot do without washing, you can quickly rinse them in running water and dry them thoroughly before freezing.
2. If honey mushrooms are subsequently boiled or fried, they should be soaked briefly in cold water to get rid of fine dirt, and only then rinsed under tap water.

Another question: do I need to cut large mushrooms? When freezing raw, you do not need to cut them, but when boiling or frying, you should cut them into pieces of the same size. In addition, you need to remember that freezing should be done as quickly as possible, without leaving it for several days.

Honey mushrooms: selection rules, preparation

As already mentioned, honey mushrooms are considered the best type of mushrooms for freezing. They are dense in consistency, therefore, they will not lose their shape after defrosting. Another advantage is that they absorb little moisture.

Only whole mushrooms, without rotten parts, are suitable for freezing. In terms of size, it is best to choose medium. Fresh honey mushrooms purchased in the store do not need to be washed in water before freezing.

For collected mushrooms in the forest, there are several rules:

1. Before collecting them, you need to carefully rake the foliage with your hands, and only then start cutting off a few mushrooms at a time. Remember that honey mushrooms grow in families.
2. Save time on processing at home. After cutting, immediately clean off all contaminants and place them in a basket with the cap down.
3. It is important to pay attention to the size. They should be small - medium. Large honey mushrooms are difficult to freeze.

Mushrooms can be stored frozen for no more than 6 months. Otherwise, the taste and aroma of ready-made honey mushrooms may not be noticeable.

The process of processing and preparing honey mushrooms is labor-intensive:

1. First of all, we sort through and remove the spoiled and wormy ones.
2. Mushrooms must be whole. We sort by size for more convenient and quick freezing.
3. Small ones are used whole, and large ones are cut. It is for this reason that it is important that the honey mushrooms are of the same average size.
4. Place in a colander and rinse under running water. Leave until the water has completely drained.

READ ALSO: Recipe for delicious tangerine jam with peel

How to freeze fresh honey mushrooms for the winter

Fresh honey mushrooms are good because they retain their appearance and texture after freezing. They are elastic and hold their shape well, unlike heat-treated mushrooms.

They should be frozen like this:

1. Clean from small debris using a dry method.
2. Sort by size.
3. Place on a cutting board, tray or tray and place in the freezer. It should be laid out in one layer.
4. Leave in the chamber for 2–3 hours.
5. Divide into bags.

Mushrooms frozen in this way can be used in the preparation of both first and second courses, fillings for baked goods, salads, and simply as an addition to a side dish.

Important! Honey mushrooms should not be eaten raw. Previously frozen mushrooms must either be boiled or otherwise subjected to heat treatment (fry or bake).

Processing honey mushrooms for freezing

Lovers of quiet hunting can pick mushrooms on their own. You should not rush in this matter: you need to carefully remove the foliage from the mushrooms, use a sharp knife to trim the mushroom stems at a certain distance from the ground, then inspect each cap and place the mushrooms with the plates facing down. This approach will save time immediately before freezing honey mushrooms. Many people buy mushrooms at the market. But one way or another, before freezing, honey mushrooms must be properly processed by yourself, at home. To do this, perform the following steps: carefully sort out the mushrooms; sort them into small and large; Thoroughly clean the mushrooms from adhering dirt and leaves.

Attention! Before freezing honey mushrooms in their raw form, it is strictly forbidden to wash them.

Heavily contaminated mushrooms can be wiped with a clean wet towel and then dried.

It should be noted that only freshly picked, young, firm and healthy (without blemishes) fruits are suitable for freezing.

Freezing boiled honey mushrooms for the winter

Mushrooms boiled before freezing are convenient because they do not need to be specially processed during the defrosting process, but can be used immediately. They can be used in making soup or mushroom caviar.

How to properly cook honey mushrooms before freezing

There are several ways to boil mushrooms before freezing. There are a few things to keep in mind before you start cooking:

• during cooking, the mushrooms greatly decrease in size;
• salted water is required for cooking;
• Before cooking, mushrooms must be thoroughly washed;
• the minimum cooking time is an hour, or better yet 2 hours;
• Since large specimens take longer to cook than small ones, mushrooms need to be sorted according to size.

How long to cook honey mushrooms for freezing for the winter

Mushrooms are considered fully prepared when all specimens settle to the bottom of the pan. After cooking, they can be packaged for freezing, after allowing them to dry. Unlike raw ones, there is no need to pre-freeze boiled honey mushrooms. They can be placed either in bags or in tightly closed plastic containers. Frozen boiled mushrooms can be stored for up to six months.

Method 1

Place the peeled mushrooms in boiling water and cook for 10 minutes, periodically skimming off the foam. Then drain the water and add fresh water, add salt again and cook for an hour, stirring. At the end of cooking, transfer to a colander and let the water drain and let the mushrooms dry (you can blot them with napkins).

Method 2

Place the mushrooms in a saucepan with cold salted water, put it on the fire and let it boil. After boiling and foam appears (the foam must be skimmed off), cook for 3 minutes, drain the water and add clean water. Add salt and continue to cook over low heat for an hour. Then drain the water, let it cool and only then freeze.

Freezing boiled honey mushrooms for the winter

For freezing, you can use both food containers and freezer bags (or regular plastic bags). There are several rules to remember when creating blanks:

1. Choose mushrooms of the same size for ease of preparation.
2. The preparations are divided into small portions, since they cannot be re-frozen.
3. You need to carefully remove excess moisture - to do this, you can transfer the mushrooms to a colander, let the liquid drain, place on a towel and let dry.
4. Since even after the water has drained, the mushrooms can still produce juice, you need to leave some free space in storage containers.

Some recipes advise you to first place the mushrooms on a tray and leave them in the freezer for 2-3 hours, and after that put them in bags, but in order to save time, this can be neglected - after defrosting, the result will look the same.

Delicious potato soup with honey mushrooms

Signature recipe from the editor of the site pomoshnica.info:

The “trick” of this dish is its unusual presentation form. The potatoes are mashed in it, but the mushrooms along with the fried vegetables are not crushed. It turns out unusual and simply amazingly tasty. I definitely recommend trying it.

Ingredients:

• 2 liters of meat broth;
• 200 grams of boiled frozen mushrooms;
• 5 large potatoes;
• 2 medium sized carrots;
• 2 small onions;
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil;
• salt, bay leaf and ground pepper to taste.

Preparation:

Boil a piece of meat with a bone until tender, remove the meat and strain 2 liters of broth needed for cooking the soup. Peel all the vegetables, defrost the honey mushrooms. Bring the peeled and coarsely chopped potatoes to boil, chop the onion into small cubes and fry in vegetable oil until golden brown. Add carrots grated on a coarse grater, stir, fry until the carrots are golden brown, you can add spices.

Remove the potatoes cooked in the broth with a slotted spoon and cool slightly. Remove the broth from the stove for now. Add the thawed boiled honey mushrooms to the frying pan with the fried vegetables, stir and simmer over low heat under the lid for no more than 5 minutes. Then put the contents of the frying pan into the pan with the broth and set to cook again. The fire under the pan should be low to prevent the soup from boiling violently.

Mash the boiled potatoes using a pestle (or any device convenient for you). As soon as the contents of the pan boil, measure 5 minutes with a kitchen timer and after the specified time, add mashed potatoes to the future soup.

Add salt to taste and over low heat, with a barely noticeable boil, simmer under the lid for another 5 minutes. Let it sit on the stove after turning off the heat for at least 20 minutes, preferably half an hour. This dish can be sprinkled with fresh herbs just before serving.

Rules for freezing after blanching

Blanching is a short-term treatment of the product with hot water.

There are several ways to blanch.

So it is possible:

1. Place a colander with mushrooms in the sink and pour boiling water over them (easy method).
2. Prepare two pans - one with cold water, the other with salted water - put on the fire and bring to a boil. Dip the mushrooms into boiling water and let them cook for 2-3 minutes, then quickly transfer them to a pan with cold water.

Transfer the mushrooms to a colander and leave, allowing excess liquid to drain. Cooled and dried honey mushrooms are laid out in bags (containers) and sent to the freezer.

Fried mushrooms in oil: preparation and storage

How to freeze fried honey mushrooms for the winter? This is much easier to do than it seems: the mushrooms are boiled as for regular freezing, and then fried in a frying pan until all the liquid has evaporated and a light golden crust has formed. Next, the semi-finished product must cool to room temperature, after which the honey mushrooms are laid out in portioned containers and filled with fat.

The disadvantage of this method of storing mushrooms is that such a product can be stored for no more than 3 months, while ordinary boiled mushrooms can be deep frozen for up to 1 year.

How to properly freeze fried mushrooms

Frozen fried honey mushrooms can be used to prepare stews or as a side dish. Frying time, as a rule, does not exceed 20 minutes.

They are fried this way:

1. Dry the washed honey mushrooms thoroughly.
2. Heat a frying pan and, without adding oil, add mushrooms to it.
3. Fry until the juice comes out.
4. Add oil, fry until golden brown.
5. Place in a colander and let the oil drain.
6. Pack the cooled mushrooms and place them in the freezer.

Freezing mushroom caviar from honey mushrooms

Since this caviar is made from pre-boiled mushrooms, it can be frozen. The peculiarity of preparing mushroom caviar is that after freezing it requires additional processing.

The caviar is prepared like this:

1. Honey mushrooms are soaked in salt water, washed and cleaned.
2. Cook in any convenient way until done.
3. Transfer to a colander, allow the water to drain, and then grind in any convenient way - in a meat grinder, blender or using a food processor.
4. Crushed caviar is packaged in bags or containers and sent to the freezer.
5. To defrost, you will need to do the following: place the frozen product in a heated frying pan, add half a cup of water and wait until the caviar begins to thaw. After the liquid begins to evaporate, add spices to taste, cover the pan with a lid and simmer until the water has completely evaporated.

Storing mushrooms in the freezer

The shelf life of honey mushrooms frozen by any of the above methods is no more than one year, provided that the temperature in the freezer is 18 ºC with a minus sign. Don't forget to put stickers on the bags indicating the freezing date.

1. To begin with, you should carefully sort the mushrooms, removing any wormy or bruised ones from the total mass.
2. Honey mushrooms for winter storage must be whole. For ease of cooking, you should sort them by size.
3. Place them in a colander and rinse well under running cool water. Allow the liquid to drain completely.

• fresh (raw);
• boiled;
• frying or stewing;
• in blanched form.

Before choosing a cooking method, you should consider some features of each of them.

If the mushrooms are stored raw, they do not need to be washed first. The hats and legs are cleaned with a knife and napkins. If the contamination is significant, then the product is rinsed under running water and laid out on a towel until completely dry.

The further algorithm is quite simple:

1. Honey mushrooms, separated by size, are laid out on a flat surface. A kitchen board will do. It is best to lay out the mushrooms in one layer, so they are less likely to stick together and be injured.
2. If the refrigerator allows it, it is better to set the chamber to deep freezing.
3. A cutting board with honey mushrooms laid out is placed in the chamber so that they freeze. Approximate time – up to three hours.
4. Afterwards, the product is transferred to containers or bags for freezing and sent for storage. The temperature in the freezer should be from -18.

The good thing about preparing boiled mushrooms is that in the future they can be used immediately without additional heat treatment. The procedure is quite simple. The main disadvantage is that boiled mushrooms do not look as attractive as fresh frozen ones. On the other hand, such a product takes up less space in the chamber. Principle of procedure:

1. The product is sorted and washed.
2. Water is poured into the container, salted and brought to a boil.
3. Honey mushrooms are added. As a result of cooking, they will decrease in size, so you can add a heap of mushrooms.
4. After the water boils again, the gas decreases to medium level. The product needs to cook for another five minutes.
5. Strain through a colander, add fresh water and put back on the fire. Boil for two hours.
6. After the set time has passed, the water is drained, and the mushrooms are laid out on a towel and left until completely dry.
7. Afterwards the product is transferred to food containers or a bag and put into the freezer.

Fried mushrooms are delicious and can be used as an independent dish or as an ingredient for vegetable stews. Some housewives prefer to freeze them after frying. This processing method is considered non-standard, since the shelf life is reduced to 3-4 months. However, the main advantage is that this is a completely finished product. You just need to defrost and heat it up, and then use it in cooking.

Rules for preparing fried mushrooms for storage in the freezer:

1. The washed and sorted honey mushrooms are transferred to the frying pan. Large ones are pre-cut.
2. The product is cooked over low heat until excess moisture evaporates.
3. After the juice has evaporated, add a tablespoon of vegetable oil.
4. Completely cooked mushrooms should cool. Afterwards they are transferred to a colander to drain the oil.
5. The final stage: the fried product is packaged and moved to the freezer.

This is another common way to prepare honey mushrooms. The procedure is much simpler than you might think. Blanching is the treatment of a product with boiling water. How to prepare:

1. Freshly peeled, washed and dried honey mushrooms are placed in a colander and poured over with boiling water.
2. Honey mushrooms should drain and dry.
3. The product can be placed in bags or containers.

Such cooking conditions help maintain the juiciness and freshness of the product.

Freezing mushrooms is not so difficult, but to preserve nutrients, taste and aroma, you need to strictly follow the rules. As already noted, frozen honey mushrooms should be stored in the refrigerator in winter.

First, the prepared product is placed in the freezer for deep freezing. It takes place at a temperature of -18 °C. When the mushrooms are ready, they can be put into a chamber where the frost is 9 ° C. This is the case if there is not enough space in the main freezer compartment.

Fried, boiled, fresh or stewed honey mushrooms, even when in containers or plastic bags, can absorb foreign odors, which will negatively affect the taste. Therefore, if space allows, it is better to put all mushroom preparations for the winter separately from all other products.

Each bag and container must have signs indicating the product and preparation time. The fact is that boiled, stewed and fresh mushrooms can be stored in the refrigerator for almost 12 months. As for fried mushrooms or caviar made from them, consuming them after 3, at most, 4 months is dangerous to health. Therefore, these frozen semi-finished products should be used first.

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How to cook frozen mushrooms

Frozen honey mushrooms are a tasty and healthy product. But in order to please your loved ones with an appetizing dish, you need to know the recipes and subtleties of cooking.

What dishes can you add frozen honey mushrooms to?

As mentioned earlier, the same dishes can be prepared from frozen honey mushrooms as from fresh ones, especially if the freezing took place raw. Fried or stewed ones can be made into a stew or side dish, and boiled ones can be used as a filling or ingredient for a salad, or as a base for mushroom soup.

How to properly use frozen honey mushrooms

Honey mushrooms must be defrosted gradually, at room temperature; You cannot use a stream of hot water or a microwave for this. But this only applies to pre-cooked mushrooms, but raw ones can be immediately boiled or fried - they will defrost in the process. Raw mushrooms require mandatory heat treatment, but boiled, fried or stewed mushrooms do not. They can be added to soups without pre-processing.

Raw mushrooms must be boiled or fried before eating.

How long does it take to cook frozen raw mushrooms?

In total, the process of boiling mushrooms takes 20–30 minutes, depending on their size and quantity. If the mushrooms are originally intended for frying, they can either be pre-boiled or immediately put into a frying pan without defrosting.

Some tips for freezing and storing mushrooms

To ensure that not only freezing, but also thawing mushrooms goes without problems, it’s worth remembering a few things:

1. For freezing, use only fresh and whole mushrooms.
2. Mushrooms do not tolerate repeated freezing.
3. Before freezing, remove excess liquid.
4. For convenience, it is better to pack in small portions.
5. In order not to miss the expiration date, it is worth signing on the bags and containers not only the date of packaging, but also the form in which the honey mushrooms are frozen - boiled, fried, cheese.
6. There is no need to completely fill the container or bag when packing - the mushrooms may release juice, and you will need free space for it.

Preparatory stage

How to store mushrooms frozen?

• They need to be sorted before being refrigerated. We discard the wormy and spoiled ones. If you let them sit in salt water for a few hours, the worms will come out.
• We cut off partial damage with a knife. We leave dense specimens, of which the smallest ones can be frozen whole, and the larger ones can be cut into pieces.
• When freezing fresh mushrooms, you should always wash and dry them. Then they are scattered on a tray in a layer, after which they are placed in the freezer. After freezing, it can be packaged in containers or bags.

Blanched mushrooms are those that have been subjected to heat treatment. They were kept in boiling water for 1 minute, after which they were immersed in the coldest possible water for the same short period. To complete the procedure, you need to transfer the mushroom mass into a colander and dry it on a towel. Now you can pack, lay out using containers and place in the freezer.