Annas tips on drying mushrooms
I (Anna) have another passion in life and that is picking mushrooms in the autumn.
One way to preserve the mushrooms and enjoy the mushrooms for your hike and the rest of the year, it is to dry them. Some mushrooms taste much stronger when dried. 70-703 This is very simple to do but if you have been lucky on your mushroom hunt your harvest can take up a lot of space for a few days. You can also use a circotherm oven or a mushroom dryer but I prefer to dry the mushroom on my big table, maybe because I like the sight of them.
Mushrooms I recommend to dry is: Funnel Chanterelle (Cantharellus tubaeformis), Black chanterelle or Black trumpet(Craterellus cornucopioides) and Porcino (Boletus edulis).
Don’t pick any mushrooms if you are not sure they are edible or not. Never ever take any chances. The best way to learn how to pick and find mushrooms is to accompany someone who knows and who is willing to teach you. I have picked mushrooms since I was a kid, my father was my first teacher and later also my brother. A good website for mushroom pickers in Sweden is svampguiden.com.
Start by cleaning the mushrooms with a brush, the Funnel Chanterelle should be divided as you sometimes find insects or snails hiding inside the funnel. Cut the bigger mushrooms in small pieces and spread them out on some newspaper. MB2-718 In a few days they will shrunk and if they feel dry you can put them in a glass pot. But wait some extra days before you close the pot, just to make sure they are completely dry.
The dried mushrooms can be stored for many years as long as you keep them dry in a container.
Dried mushrooms are really nice to bring on a hike, to be used in pasta sauces, risotto or a warm hot soup. Just let them soak in some water for a while and then fry/parboil them in a pan, add oil or butter when the water is gone.