The second half of summer - it's time to replenish stocks for the winter. It is time to harvest, process and preserve vegetables.
More delicate berries and fruits, except for cans, are sent to the freezer - for better preservation of vitamins.
But there is another type of blanks that many hostesses practice, namely freezing of mushrooms collected or bought for the winter, and this process should be considered in more detail.
What mushrooms are suitable
Fans of "quiet hunting" know that practically any edible species are suitable for such purposes. But best of all keep their taste:
- boletus mushrooms;
- chanterelles;
- honey agaric;
- boletus;
- aspen birds;
- Champignon.
Slightly inferior to them, but still retain their gastronomic "notes", such as:- White mushrooms;
- oyster mushrooms;
- Wash;
- boletus;
- saffron milk;
- russula.
Most often used are purchased oyster mushrooms or champignons. This is the easiest option for citizens - not everyone has a forest nearby, and it is problematic to assemble wild mushrooms without proper experience.
Important! In a filled container or bag there must be a minimum of air, which accelerates the "aging" of products. Therefore, the containers are filled to the very lid, and from the packages they “bleed” the air before they are tied up.
Forest harvesting is more preferable (after all, "natural products"), but there are some nuances here too. Only young plants taken from the edge of the massif should be assembled. Roadside is not suitable for food (due to the ability to absorb harmful substances through the mycelium). 
Mushroom preparation
Primary processing is done immediately after collection. Ideally - during the day. The most demanding in this regard are boletus, volvushki, honey agarics and aspen mushrooms. Having such a collection, you will have to act as quickly as possible.
Learn more about the beneficial properties of ceps and milk mushrooms.
Other species (especially oyster mushrooms) can withstand 1.5-2 days, although this should not be abused - useful substances and compounds "evaporate" quite briskly.
The rest of the preparation at home is quite simple, mushrooms, before they freeze, are subjected to such simple procedures:
- a thorough inspection - all old, cracked, limp or just suspicious instances set aside;
- all trash and dirt are removed from the rest;
- then there is a thorough rinsing with a change of water (with some of the useful properties lost, but safety is above all);
- after washing, they are laid out on a towel and dried.
Already dry mushrooms are ready for further processing and freezing. The largest ones are neatly cut, while the smaller ones try to be left intact (however, for smaller ones in terms of volume, they will also have to be cut).Did you know? Chanterelles do not get their name from the cunning forest beast. In antiquity, the word “fox” was in use in Russia, that is, yellow (just in color).
Ways of freezing
Having already washed mushrooms, you can proceed directly to the freezing. Let's start with the easiest way to save the newly collected material.
Learn how to prepare for the winter boletus, milk mushrooms and porcini mushrooms, as well as dry oyster mushrooms.
Raw mushrooms
The algorithm of such work will be as follows:
- Mushrooms evenly scatter on containers or a tray. The layer should be thin.
- Then the container is left for 12 hours in the freezer, "winding up" the maximum mode.
- After this time, the workpiece is removed, and the mushrooms themselves are distributed in ordinary plastic bags. They are put in the freezer, working already in standard mode.
Many are interested in, and which mushrooms from the above list can be frozen, taken raw, and whether they really retain their nutritional qualities in such a simple way.Important! An ideal storage container would be a container made of so-called Kraft cardboard with walls and bottom laminated from the inside.
"High-speed" freezing without preliminary heat treatment Best suited for purely forest species, such as:
- chanterelles;
- boletus;
- boletus;
- aspen birds;
- honey agaric;
- champignons (collected on the edge of the forest, not purchased).
Boiled
It happens that the collected copies seem to be whole, but their condition does not hold out a bit to the “presentation”. In such cases, helps out short brew:
- A large pot is placed on the middle fire. Calculate the volume is simple - 5 liters of water per 1 kg of collection.
- An already washed and cut billet is placed in the pan, which will be boiled for 5-10 minutes.
- Turning off the gas, you need to let the boiling water cool down a bit and then remove all the pieces with a colander, decanting the water. Some mushrooms dry out, but this is optional.
- It remains to place the mushrooms in packages and put in the freezer. They are packaged in such a way that one bag or container is enough to prepare one dish - having opened the cellophane in winter, the product is immediately sent to cooking (melting, it loses vitamins and minerals very quickly, and the taste becomes not so saturated).
The actual question remains, is it possible to freeze absolutely whole mushrooms just by taking them raw and not boiling before being sent to the chamber.Did you know? Surprisingly, our ancestors did not appreciate mushrooms too much. Moreover, they were considered "dung" (because they grow only on well-saturated soils).
Practice suggests that nothing terrible will happen, but there is one culinary trick. If you freeze such foods for cooking soup, then you can not scald, but for future frying, this procedure is required.
Stewed
This method allows to preserve the flavor without much damage to the structure of the legs or caps:
- The blanks are soaked in a solution of water with citric acid (1 tsp. To 1 liter). Stand 5-7 minutes.
- Then throw on a heated pan, pre-pouring there a little vegetable oil.
- Expose strong fire and stir for 4-5 minutes. To enhance the taste, you can add onions (crushed or rings). This "set" is roasted for another 2-3 minutes.
- It remains to stew under the lid for 15-20 minutes, do not forget to slightly pepper and salt at the end.
- Turning off the gas, let the mushrooms brew a little under the lid.
Important! If during the long cooking the mushrooms began to turn slightly gray and frown, this is not a reason for fear. On the contrary, such a signal indicates the final "outcome" of microbes and harmful impurities.
The final chord - cooling and placement in containers or packages. It turned out a great base for pasta, which is sent to the freezer. 
Fried
Here, too, there is no particular difficulty:
- 2 spoons of vegetable or olive oil drip into the pan.
- When it warms up on medium heat, it is necessary to lay out the cut collection in a thin layer.
- The duration of the zazharki may vary depending on the size - 4-5 minutes will be enough for small pieces, while larger ones may take 10-15 minutes.
- Then there is a cooling (you can not cover the lid).
- Then everything is as usual: packing and the way to the fridge. The resulting product, lying there until winter, will be an excellent filling.
In order not to be mistaken in the choice of edible mushrooms, it is very important to be able to distinguish them from dangerous specimens. Learn more about pond pods (aspen, black), pigs, mokhovik, podgruzdkah, morels and lines, black truffle.
Often such processing is carried out not on the plate itself, but in the oven. So even more economically - the oil is not required (it replaces its own juice). True, old plates can give uneven heating, and this moment should be kept in mind even before roasting.
How much can be stored
After all these works, a logical question arises: how much can you keep and store packaged and frozen mushrooms in a regular freezer?
Did you know? The modern look of mushrooms was formed 50 million years ago. Although such organisms, only more primitive, appeared much earlier - about 1 billion years ago.
Most often, the blanks are kept no more than a year, maintaining a constant temperature in the chamber within -18 ... -19 ° С. But this is the most common figure, which can be adjusted depending on the method that was used when freezing. The condition of the refrigerator also plays its role.
If we add up all these factors, we get the following data:
- raw mushrooms will be the most useful from 8 to 10-11 months. By the annual "turn" they lose a little their taste;
- boiled and fried lie quietly year (if the packaging is not broken);
- The “useful maximum” of stews is 8 months, after which a gradual loss of nutritional properties begins.
We advise you to read about how to properly pickle mushrooms.
As you can see, properly frozen mushrooms have a good shelf life - it will be something to decorate the New Year's table (and not only). 
How to defrost
The main rule is defrosting should be natural, without the participation of boiling water type boosters. You will have to be patient: a two-kilo package will not be defaced after 12 hours (or even more). Without such preparation, it is inconceivable to make soup or pasta from products that were boiled or stewed before long-term cooling.
Important! For a more "gentle" defrosting, raw mushrooms are first moved from the chamber to the main compartment of the refrigerator, and only then sent to thaw in a bowl.
But of all the rules are exceptions. So here - before using frozen mushrooms for frying, a different housewife may not unfreeze them. In this case, it is not necessary: a heated pan very quickly “melts” the frost. But even before that you need to fry chopped onion on it, and only then put the workpiece itself.
Using the freezing method, you can prepare almost any product for the winter: strawberries, blueberries, cherries, apples, tomatoes, corn, green peas, eggplants, and pumpkin.
Remember that it is undesirable to freeze the mushrooms again - the appetizing collection turns into a shapeless and tasteless porridge. So calculate the necessary "dose" in advance to immediately use the valuable and tasty product from the pack completely. After defrosting, it is used without a long break.
In this article, you learned how to freeze freshly picked or just bought mushrooms. We hope these tips will help you decorate the winter table with unusual and tasty dishes. Do not be afraid to experiment!
