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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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Freezing Porcini Mushrooms: You Should Pay Attention to This

If you freeze porcini mushrooms, you can make them last much longer. We explain how it works and what you should consider before buying or collecting the mushrooms.

Freezing porcini mushrooms: You should pay attention to this

If you want to freeze porcini mushrooms, they should be fresh. When you buy porcini mushrooms, an organic seal guarantees you organic cultivation that is free of chemical-synthetic pesticides. With your purchase you can also support regional suppliers, such as the farm or organic market in your area.

If you are looking for porcini mushrooms in the forest, you should note that mushroom picking is strictly forbidden in nature reserves. In other forests you are usually allowed to collect for your own use, but find out about it beforehand.

Freezing porcini mushrooms: this is how you do it

If you want to freeze porcini mushrooms, the mushrooms should be in an unprocessed state if possible. This way you can keep them for up to 12 more months by freezing them. We explain in three steps how to freeze raw porcini mushrooms:

Clean mushrooms: First, carefully clean the porcini mushrooms with a cloth or brush. Don’t wash the mushrooms with water at this point, because that way they will go mushy very quickly.
Cut the mushrooms into small pieces: Use a paring knife to remove the stem ends of the porcini mushrooms. Now cut the mushrooms into small pieces. Halve, quarter or slice the mushrooms.
Freezing: Put the porcini mushrooms in an empty screw-top jar and freeze the mushrooms at around minus eighteen degrees.

To use the porcini mushrooms for various mushroom dishes, you can heat the porcini mushrooms while they are frozen. If you let them thaw for a long time, they lose their firm consistency.

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Prepare The Porcini Mushrooms: Clean And Fry Properly

Correct cleaning and preparation is very important, especially with self-collected porcini mushrooms. We show you what you should consider.

Clean porcini mushrooms: This is how it works

Before you can process and prepare porcini mushrooms, you should first clean them. To do this, first wash them carefully under running water. It is best to use your hands and not a vegetable brush, as this will damage the mushroom too much.

Then cut off the wooden end. It doesn’t taste particularly good and is also uncomfortable to chew. If you are using very large porcini mushrooms, you should also remove the spongy tissue under the mushroom head as a precaution, as bugs and dirt can collect in it.

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Cleaning Porcini Mushrooms: 3 Tips For Mushroom Pickers

We give you three tips on how to clean fresh porcini mushrooms – and also show you which dishes you can prepare with them.

Porcini mushrooms are among the most popular forest mushrooms. They grow from June to November and are most likely to be found in shady spots under trees such as beech and oak.

Tips for cleaning porcini mushrooms

Porcini mushrooms should be cleaned immediately after collecting or buying them.

Tip 1: Check for vermin when collecting

When collecting the mushrooms, pre-clean them in the forest. That means you should carefully wipe away any dirt with your fingers, cut away broken or pitted areas, and remove bugs. Also check bought mushrooms at home first for damage. Since porcini mushrooms are often attacked by maggots, it is advisable to cut the mushrooms open lengthwise and examine them for such. Maggots mostly eat inside the fungus from bottom to top. Infested areas should be cut away generously, preferably in the forest.

You can continue to work on the mushrooms at home: With very large porcini mushrooms, you should cut away the sponge under the cap, as dirt and insects can hide in it. Even if the sponge is old or a bit muddy, you should remove it. If you pulled the porcini out of the ground with a twisting motion and the lower, earthy end of the mushroom is still there, you should cut that off as well.

Tip 2: Proceed with caution

If you have not already done so, remove the coarse dirt carefully with your fingers. Be careful when doing this, as the surface of mushrooms is very delicate. Helpful utensils for removing dirt are a brush or a small brush. You can use this to carefully clean each individual porcini mushroom. Finally, you can clean the mushrooms with a kitchen towel. Optionally and depending on the degree of soiling, you can (slightly!) moisten it.

Tip 3: Avoid water

Avoid washing the porcini mushrooms with water. They soak up water quickly and lose their flavor. They then release the water when they boil. If specimens are heavily soiled and you cannot get them cleaned with the above steps, you can rinse them in a sieve with cold to lukewarm water. Then pat the mushrooms dry with a cloth.

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