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Drying Porcini Mushrooms: This is How You Make Them Durable

Porcini mushrooms cannot be grown commercially, so they are not available fresh all year round. However, if you dry porcini mushrooms, you can preserve them. We’ll show you how.

Drying porcini mushrooms: the right preparation

Before you dry the porcini mushrooms, you should take the following precautions:

Dry the mushrooms as soon as possible after picking. This is the best way to preserve their aromatic taste.
Wet porcini mushrooms are not suitable for drying, as they easily mold. Therefore, only clean the mushrooms with a slightly damp cloth before drying. You can also scrape off dirt with a sharp knife.
Cut out any eaten spots on the porcini mushrooms. The best way to dry porcini mushrooms is to cut them into slices three to five millimeters thick.
Now you can decide, because there are two ways to dry porcini mushrooms without a professional dehydrator: in the air or in the oven.

Air dry porcini mushrooms

Air-drying porcini mushrooms is the easiest and most environmentally friendly option. However, you need the right weather for it. The air drying process only works when the weather is dry and as hot as possible. How to do it:

Thread the porcini slices on a thin thread or spread them out on a baking sheet. The mushroom pieces should not touch each other.
Dry the porcini either in full sun or in the shade. The former speeds up the drying process, but the latter is gentler and better preserves the aroma of the mushrooms.
If the mushroom slices are on a baking sheet, you should turn them several times a day. If you dry the mushrooms outside, you also have to bring them inside in the evening, otherwise they could absorb moisture from the cool night and morning air.
The duration of the drying process varies depending on the weather. The dried porcini mushrooms are ready as soon as they are dry on the inside but can still be bent. They also rustle like dry leaves.

Drying porcini mushrooms in the oven

Drying in the oven requires more energy. Proceed as follows for the drying process in the oven:

Spread the porcini slices on a baking sheet and place in the oven.
Then let the mushrooms dry at a maximum of 50 degrees and circulating air. Important: Hold the oven door ajar with the handle of a wooden spoon so that the moisture in the mushrooms can escape into the oven.
With this drying variant, too, the duration of the drying process varies depending on the performance of the oven.
Tip: If you have a stove with a stone plate, you can also let the porcini mushrooms dry on this plate while the fire burns in the stove. This way you don’t use any additional energy.

Properly store dried porcini mushrooms

You should store dried porcini mushrooms in airtight jars in a dark, dry place.

Stored in this way, dried porcini mushrooms will keep for several years. If they get a slight gray tinge after a while, this is harmless: they are leaked minerals.

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Cooking Tips

Drying Rose Hips: This is How You Can Preserve Them

If you dry rose hips, you can also enjoy the delicious vitamin bombs out of season. We will show you some methods and also tell you what is important when collecting rose hips.

Collecting rosehips: That’s what matters

Before you can dry rosehips, you must first collect them; The fresh fruit is usually not available for purchase. You can harvest rose hips from October. At this point, the small fruits are ripe enough and you can dry them easily. They will not lose quality in the coming weeks either. However, from December they can begin to ferment.

You can collect rose hips either in your garden or in nature. To be on the safe side, you should wear gloves when harvesting. You may remember school pranks and the itch a crushed rosehip leaves on your skin. With gloves you are on the safe side. Also, to avoid stains, don’t wear your best clothes.

Depending on where you collect the rose hips, you can also make sure to pick closer to the top of the bush. The lower berries are significantly more dirt and exposed to the odd dog. Never pick all the rosehips from a bush, as they are an important food source for birds in winter.

You should wash the collected rose hips thoroughly. If you like, you can cut the berries lengthways and scrape out the seeds. But that is not absolutely necessary: ​​rosehip seeds also provide many vitamins as well as valuable omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.

Drying rose hips: In the oven or in the dehydrator

You can dry rose hips either in the oven or in the dehydrator. This is the best way to go about it:

Place the washed rose hips on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or on a rack in the dehydrator. Make sure that the berries are not too close together: otherwise they will only give off the moisture to each other and it cannot escape properly. If you plan to dry a large batch of rose hips, it’s better to use multiple trays.
Set the oven or dehydrator to 40 degrees Celsius. If you’re drying the rose hips in the oven, you should also place a wooden spoon between the oven door and the oven. This will remove the moisture from the oven.
Once in the oven or dehydrator, the rose hips take about eight to twelve hours to dry, depending on their size. This time is reduced if you have already air-dried them a little beforehand.
The following applies to this method: the hotter, the faster. However, if you set the devices to more than 40 degrees Celsius, the rose hips lose valuable vitamins during drying.

Unfortunately, the energy consumption is very high due to the long time in the oven or in the vending machine. It is more sustainable to dry the fruit in the sun or on a heater. So you don’t use any additional electricity when drying. This method is also gentler on the rose hips, which means you retain more vitamins.

Drying rose hips: In the sun or on a heater

If you dry rosehips in the sun, you should choose a sheltered place – otherwise birds may snatch the fruit. You can place a fine sieve or discarded curtain over the hips to protect them, or place a fruit bonnet over them.

If you store rose hips on the heater, you have a lot less to worry about. During the autumn rosehip season, your heating is probably on anyway – and birds won’t get in your way in the apartment either. If you have pets, you should still be careful and maybe choose a high-level heater for drying. While rose hips are not harmful to dogs and cats, you want some of the fruit yourself. A nice side effect of this method is the fruity scent that develops when the rose hips dry.

Rose hips dry without an oven: Further information

If you want to air dry rose hips, it is best to place them on some newspaper or a kitchen towel on an oven rack. In this way, warm air also reaches the berries from below. With the heating method, it is sufficient if you dry the rose hips on newspaper or a cloth. The same applies here: it is better to leave a little more space between the fruits so that the moisture can really escape. Also, if the fruit touches, mold can form in those places.

The rose hips need several days to dry both on the heater and in the sun. You should turn them regularly so that they dry evenly on all sides. If in doubt, it is better to dry the rose hips a little longer. This reduces the risk of them still being damp on the inside and mold forming later.

After drying, it is best to store the rose hips in an airtight container. Store the jar in a cool, dark place, for example in a storage room or in the basement. The dried rose hips will keep for several months.

Use of dried rose hips

You can enjoy dried rose hips, for example, as a tea, as a topping for muesli or as a small snack in between. You can also make rosehip powder yourself from the dried fruit. In addition, dried rose hips are suitable as a special ingredient for smoothies or sauces. They add a great fruity component to savory dishes in particular.

In small amounts, dried rose hips are also suitable as an addition to dog food and provide your four-legged friend with important vitamins. And of course you can also simply use dried rose hips to decorate autumn or winter arrangements, Advent wreaths and the like.

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Food

Drying Sourdough: This is How You Make It Durable for a Long Time

You can simply dry sourdough and store it for a long time. We will introduce you to three methods of preserving sourdough: by crumbling, drying and freezing.

You only have to prepare sourdough once and can then “feed” it again and again with flour and water and thus multiply it. This makes it last forever. The sourdough contains microorganisms (such as lactic acid bacteria and yeast) that form during the fermentation process and make the dough slightly acidic. However, if you don’t bake regularly or want to send the sourdough to friends or relatives, you can preserve the sourdough by drying it. The shelf life of the sourdough varies depending on the method, ranging from three months to several years.

For each of the three methods, you must first prepare a sourdough. You can find instructions here: Prepare the sourdough. We strongly recommend that you buy the ingredients in organic quality. Among other things, you avoid residues of chemical-synthetic pesticides and support ecological agriculture.

Method: Crumble sourdough

The first method is the “crumbling” and subsequent drying of leaven:

Pour your prepared sourdough into a bowl.
Gradually add the flour and mix everything together with a wooden spoon. Use enough flour so that the dough is only slightly moist and crumbs can form.
Gradually rub the dough between your palms. This creates crumbs. Do the same with the entire dough.
It is best to spread the crumbs on a baking sheet and let them dry for several hours. This way you prevent mold.
Fill the so-called Krümelsauer into a lockable screw-top jar. You should only close the jar loosely or drill a hole in it if the dough continues to ferment a little. Alternatively, use a cloth bag. The dried sourdough can be stored in the refrigerator for about three months.

To use the dough again, add enough water to the crumbs until it becomes a paste. Store the dough at room temperature for about 2 to 8 hours. It is then activated again and can be processed further.

Method: Dry sourdough as flakes or powder

The second method involves making flakes or powder from the sourdough:

Spread the sourdough thinly on half of a sheet of baking paper and fold it over. If you have more dough, use a second sheet of baking paper.
Allow the sourdough to dry at room temperature. This takes about a day or two. The dough needs to be really dry, otherwise mold can form.
Dried, sourdough is lighter in color, cracks, and breaks easily when touched.
Note: You can usually reuse the parchment paper. To do this, carefully peel off the dry sourdough so that the baking paper does not tear. Or you can use a sustainable baking paper alternative.

Break off small pieces of the dried sourdough. Now you have two options:

For tiles: Place the small pieces in a sealable container, cloth bag, or paper bag.
For powder: grind the small dividers into powder with a mortar or grinder.
Dried sourdough lasts for several years. You can store it in the fridge or at room temperature in a dark place (for example, in the pantry).

To reactivate the leaven, you need to add water and flour. First add the same amount of water to the dried dough (ratio 1:1). If he starts blistering at room temperature, you can “feed” him with more water and flour. This can take several hours.

Note: Since most microorganisms die off during drying, the sourdough may not always start to ferment. This is always the case when there are no or no longer sufficient microorganisms in the dough.

Method: Sourdough Freezing

Pour your sourdough into a sealable container that is freezer-safe. Alternatively, you can fill the batter into an ice cube tray. Place the dough in your freezer or freezer compartment.

Freezing disrupts the fermenting properties of sourdough, as some of the microorganisms die off. So give the dough 1-3 days after defrosting to recover slowly. You can add some flour and water and activate it at room temperature. You can then feed him more flour and water.

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