How to salt black milk mushrooms for the winter - the cold way

Mushrooms are generally difficult to digest, and in the case of black milk mushroom, everything is complicated by its bitter juice, which can cause irritation of the gastric mucosa and indigestion. It is this juice that you need to get rid of.

Black milk mushrooms are most often salted cold. This is the name even for the method that uses pre-boiling.

After cleaning the milk mushrooms, they need to be soaked in cold, salted water for 3-4 days, changing the water twice a day. Only such a long soaking will relieve the mushrooms of bitterness. But not many people are willing to wait that long, and the soaking process is replaced by boiling black milk mushrooms for 5-10 minutes. During this time, the mushrooms will not cook, but the bitterness will go away. Both of these methods are good, and choosing which one to use for pickling black milk mushrooms is up to you.

To pickle black milk mushrooms in a cold way, it will be more practical to get rid of the legs. The hats are easier to arrange, and the legs can be boiled separately and frozen for the winter, for preparing first or second courses.

Prepare a container for pickling. Ideally, this is a wooden tub, glass jar, or clay pot.It is better not to use plastic and iron here, so that the mushrooms do not acquire foreign tastes.

Now about salt and spices. Black milk mushrooms are very juicy, and unlike white milk mushrooms, they love spices. Feel free to add garlic, bay and currant leaves, dill, pepper, all this will diversify the taste of salted mushrooms and make conditionally edible mushrooms divinely tasty.

So, place a small layer of horseradish leaves, currants, cherries, etc. on the bottom of the pickling container.

Now, place a layer of mushrooms, caps down, and sprinkle them with salt.

• For 10 kg of milk mushrooms you need about 3 cups of coarse salt.

Place a layer of mushrooms again, if desired, sprinkle the milk mushrooms with spices, garlic and salt again, and so on until the very top.

Cover the mushrooms with the remaining leaves, cover with gauze or any clean cotton cloth. In order for the mushrooms to release juice, they need to be pressed under pressure. Place an inverted plate or lid on top of the fabric and place a heavy weight on top.

Now the container with mushrooms needs to be taken to the cellar, or any other cool place, and wait 30 days so that the mushrooms are well salted.

Make sure the mushrooms release their juice. If there is no juice, perhaps the bend is not heavy enough, or there is too little salt. If a week after pickling the juice still does not appear, you will have to cook the brine and add it yourself, otherwise the mushrooms will become moldy.

The brine is prepared simply:

For 1 liter of water add 3 tbsp. l. salt and boil it. After cooling, add brine to the mushrooms and monitor the process from time to time.

During salting, milk mushrooms decrease slightly in size and change color to dark burgundy or black. This is normal, this is how it should be. Smell the mushrooms. If it has a pleasant mushroom aroma with spices, then you are in for a wonderful appetizer.The smell of mold will tell you that it is better to get rid of this workpiece and wash the barrel, preparing it for another try. When hot-salting milk mushrooms, such troubles do not occur, but the taste of these mushrooms is significantly different.

Pickling black milk mushrooms is a simple matter, but everything requires experience, and there are all sorts of unpredictable accidents. Watch the video on how to pickle black milk mushrooms in a cold way and cook for your health: