Freezing food for the purpose of storing raw, prepared foods and convenience foods is popular not only before winter, but also at any other time of the year. Thanks to the freezer, your food retains all the beneficial properties, vitamins and aroma. Many are interested in how to freeze porcini mushrooms correctly and in what form. This information is described below how to freeze them in the freezer for the winter, which will give answers to all questions about this.

Preparation for freezing

Before freezing fresh mushrooms, cooking is necessary, which consists of several stages:

1. Clean with a brush or foam rubber brush.
2. It is recommended to sort, it is convenient from the point of view of serving the dishes: put the whole freezer on the small ones and use it for beautiful holiday mushroom salads; large ones can be cut into convenient pieces for cooking dishes such as roll, mushroom soup or pie.
3. Prepare special convenient storage containers (plastic boxes, plastic bags); gently lay the mushrooms in them.

If you are planning to dry or freeze the mushrooms, it is not recommended to rinse them with water, just rinse slightly under the tap in case of serious contamination.

How to clean

It is necessary to start cleaning as soon as possible after cutting the mushroom. Many people do not know how to clean according to culinary technology.

The nuances and cleaning sequence are described below:

1. It is recommended not to delay the processing of fresh mushroom products, but to do this within a few hours after they have been cut. If this is problematic in time, you can store them in the refrigerator in an enameled pan for about 1-2 days. At the same time, try to shift them less and take them by hand.
2. For cleaning, prepare three containers: one with warm water, the second for garbage and the third for chopped mushrooms. If they are very dirty, soak in water for 10–20 minutes. After that, clean them and let them drain excess moisture by first folding the mushrooms in a colander.
3. On the leg, it is necessary to update the slice and remove the most problematic parts.
4. Before cleaning the hat, remove all dirt with a stainless steel knife or blade.

Boil

By boiling mushrooms for freezing, you will save a lot of space in the freezer, because they are reduced in size when cooking. No need to boil mushrooms for a long time.

Follow general simple guidelines:

1. Dice and boil for 5 minutes. Transfer to a colander, letting excess liquid drain.
2. After cooling, lay the dish gently on pre-cooked bags or containers.

Video: how to freeze porcini mushrooms for the winter

Fry

Standard frying process:

1. Cut the peeled boletus into slices or cubes, put in a hot pan.
2. Extinguish them as long as it takes to evaporate almost all the moisture (about 20 minutes).
3. Then start frying, adding vegetable, olive or butter. It is necessary to fry for about 5 minutes.
4. To remove excess fat, you can use a dry paper towel or colander.
5. Pack carefully and store in the freezer.

Expiration date in the freezer

It is known that for most mushroom products and berries, the shelf life in the freezer at –18 ºС is about 1 year. For the subsequent preparation of mushroom dishes by thermal means, it is not necessary to defrost the mushrooms. If there is such a need, leave them first in a normal refrigerator compartment for several hours, and then complete the defrost by transferring them to the kitchen table.

Industrial freezing of porcini mushrooms

To date, there are a number of manufacturers who use the individual quick freeze method. After the initial processing (cleaning, sorting), mushroom products are sent via a conveyor belt to the tunnel, where streams of frosty fast air freeze them for minutes and sometimes even seconds.

• What are the advantages of this method:
• mushrooms are separated from each other;
• dehydration is excluded;
• internal moisture creates such a crystalline structure that retains almost all the taste and beneficial properties.

Did you know? There is an opinion that during long-term storage of products in the freezer, a part of both beneficial properties, for example, vitamins, and harmful ones is lost. Regarding useful properties, this is true. But the freezer doesn't make poisonous or stale mushroom foods better.

Freezing food at home is the best method of storing the gifts of nature, because it is easy to use and useful from the point of view of the safety of all properties. This principle is suitable for all types of mushrooms and not only.