Mushrooms is a Polish speci alty. Many foreigners consider eating forest mushrooms a life-threatening extreme sport. But we can tell the difference between edible and poisonous. So we can go mushroom picking.

Mushroomsoccupy an important place in Polish cuisine. Can anyone imagine Christmas Eve without them? That is why we go mushroom picking in summer and autumn. But not only because. Finding a place full of porcini mushrooms is a mushroom picker's dream, because you usually have to keep walking to fill the basket with them.

What prompts us to look for mushrooms? Not only the taste and aroma, because some pickers are not their gourmets at all. Perhaps the ancient hunter instinct is echoing in us?

Mushrooms: to wring out or to cut out?

Mushrooms are commonly referred to as fruiting bodies of a mycelium - an organism found underground, living for many years. The fruiting bodies disperse spores that need water to germinate. This is why mushrooms grow after rain. Most of them are in September, because this month is usually quite humid. When picking mushrooms, try to damage the mycelium as little as possible.

Which method allows you to keep it in better condition: twisting or cutting? The new mushroom atlases allow both, with a slight indication of the gentle twisting of the fruiting body from the substrate. It enables better recognition of the species characteristics of lamellar fungi and damages the mycelium to a lesser extent than cutting.

For mushrooms - only with a basket

Collect mushrooms only in a wicker basket, where they will not crumple and will have air access. In plastic nets and buckets they get damaged and infuse. Then bacteria quickly develop in them, a putrefying process begins, as a result of which the edible fungi can become toxic.

Nutritional values ​​of mushrooms

There is a misconception that mushrooms are nutritionally worthless. Meanwhile, they contain a lot of easily digestible protein. Its value is lower than in meat products, but much higher than in vegetable products.

Fruits are also a good source of B vitamins ( although you can also find vitamins A, C and D in them), and minerals (iron, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, zinc, iodine, manganese, fluorine, copper ). Due to the high content of animal-like protein and iron, mushrooms have even gained the name of "forest meat".

At the same time, they are low in calories - 100 gfresh mushrooms are 40-50 kcal, dried mushrooms - 250 kcal. The tasty fruiting bodies also contain a lot of chitin-like fiber, which humans cannot digest at all. It gives you a feeling of satiety, but it makes mushrooms difficult to digest. Therefore, their children, the elderly and the sick who require an easily digestible diet should not eat them. However, for he althy people, they can be a tasty and nutritious product diversifying the daily diet. Fresh mushrooms have the most nutritional value.

Don't miss:

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  • 10 of the most poisonous mushrooms. Check which mushrooms not to pick
  • Poisoning by edible mushrooms. When can edible mushrooms be harmful?

Mushrooms: a delicacy for winter days

The simplest ways of storing mushrooms are freezing or drying them in a poorly heated oven (40-50⁰C) with the door ajar or in a mushroom and fruit dryer (mushroom lovers should decide to buy it, it costs PLN 100-120). They can also be marinated.

Souring (thanks to this processing method they are easier to digest) and pasteurization, we suggest how to do it.

  • Souring. Wash the cleaned mushrooms and put them in boiling, s alted water (a tablespoon of s alt per liter of water). Cook for 3 minutes. Then strain and let cool. Put in layers in stone pots or jars, sprinkling them with s alt and spices (3 tablespoons of s alt per 1 kg of mushrooms, a few grains of pepper, allspice and 2 bay leaves). Cover the filled vessel tightly with a cloth or a plate loaded with a stone. If within a few days the juice released by the mushrooms does not cover their surface, add a little slightly s alted water to the bowl. Sour each type of mushrooms separately.
  • Pasteurization. Put the washed mushrooms in s alted boiling water (give 3 tablespoons of s alt per 1 kg of mushrooms) and cook for 10-15 minutes. Then strain the mushrooms and arrange them in jars. Boil the stock with the addition of a few peppercorns and 3 bay leaves. Pour it over the mushrooms up to 3/4 of the height of the jar. Close it tightly and pasteurize it twice - on the first day - 60 minutes, on the second - 30 minutes.
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  • Geese are edible mushrooms. How to recognize and prepare geese?
  • KANIA (mushroom) - likelooks like when to collect? Kani recipes
  • Riga is an edible mushroom. How to recognize and prepare red mushrooms?
This will be useful to you

Rules of the mushroom picker

  • Don't pick mushrooms that you don't know.
  • If you are not sure if you have identified a mushroom correctly, do not put it in the basket.
  • If you are a newbie, only collect tubular mushrooms (the bottom of the hat looks like a sponge). There are none among them that cause fatal poisoning.
  • Select only adult specimens. The tiny fruiting bodies have not yet developed their species characteristics. So it is difficult to distinguish them from poisonous ones.
  • Don't pick old mushrooms. They are distasteful and can be toxic (they have started to rot).
  • Do not destroy inedible mushrooms. They are an important link in the forest ecosystem. Some of them are under strict protection, e.g. boletus, very rare and exceptionally beautiful.
  • Mushrooms - dishes with fresh mushrooms
  • How to make MUSHROOMS? Mushroom dishes and preserves
  • MARINATED MUSHROOMS - RECIPES for marinated mushrooms
  • Is it worth eating MUSHROOMS?
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