How to Freeze Mushrooms at Home

Being a mushroom lover, you ought to have a keen interest in how it can be stored without losing its natural and nutritional value. Many of us also have a question that are frozen mushrooms good for our body? Study shows that frozen mushrooms are equally healthier to fresh mushrooms. We have jotted down some ideas for you on how you can freeze mushrooms.

The process involves four stages namely Selection, Cooking, Freezing and Drying.

1. Selection of Varieties of Mushrooms

Mushrooms should be picked very precisely, and one should keep in mind the following conditions while choosing the mushrooms.

• Fresh Mushrooms should be selected
• It should be damp and black
• The mushrooms selected should not smell bad
• The size and shape of the mushroom, along with its softness should be checked

2. Cooking

The very next process is cooking, once you select the fresh mushrooms includes two important steps. Mind well to follow these before you freeze mushrooms. First is Sautéing which is then followed by steaming.

Let’s understand how you cook the mushrooms:

• Sautéing:

After selection of mushrooms, heat them in a frying pan with high temperature and add a small amount of oil. You can also add a small amount of butter which adds to the taste. Take a breath and wait for around seven minutes until your mushrooms are fully cooked. Let all the water in the frying pan evaporate and once completed, you can proceed to the next step of steaming.

• Steaming:

You will see that most of the mushrooms have darkened a bit by cooking. If you want to reduce this darkness, take a mixture of 1 pint of water mixed well with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and soak your cooked mushrooms into the mixture for about 4-6 minutes. If available, you can even add half a teaspoon of citric acid to the mixture. Once you have done that, steam your mushrooms. The steaming time is five minutes for whole mushrooms, three minutes if you’ve used the sliced ones, and three and half minutes for both Button and Quartered mushrooms.

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3. Freezing Mushrooms

You can freeze a variety of mushrooms to preserve their natural flavor. Frozen sliced mushrooms are mainly used for soups, stews and casseroles. The best way to maintain the quality of mushrooms is by freezing it and here’s how you do it:

But before you start using our recipe of freezing mushrooms, there are a few conditions to it which should be noted:

Tips to Follow Before You Freeze Mushrooms

• Mushrooms can easily stay afresh for 1 week provided you have an electric refrigerator.
• Most people make a mistake of washing Mushrooms, which should be avoided before freezing mushrooms.
• Do not store the cooked mushrooms in airtight containers. It will cause condensation and thus will lead to soggy mushrooms.

Once you’ve followed above tips, start the steps below that will help you to freeze mushrooms:

• Take a mixture of one litre of water mixed with half teaspoon of salt and boil it.
• After a bit of boiling put the steamed mushrooms into it and let the mixture boil for some time.
• The boiling process takes time and you should ideally be waiting for around three to four minutes to complete the process.
• Being the expert that you are, you will surely know when to remove the mushrooms once they are boiled. After removing them, rinse thoroughly with cold water.
• Let the rinsed mushrooms dry completely and let the water drain out of the mushrooms.
• Get an airtight bag and store all the mushrooms in the bag and seal it.
• Lastly, make some space in the lowest area of your freezer and you’re done with your procedure of freezing the mushrooms. Just leave it there before you want to make use of it.

4. Drying

The drying process can help you have a better taste of mushrooms afterwards when you want to cook frozen mushrooms.

Directions for Drying

1. If you are using an oven, pre-heat it to a maximum temperature of 150°.
2. Now it’s time to slice down your frozen mushrooms into thin slices as thicker slices usually take more time to dry out.
3. Preparation of frozen sliced mushrooms can be done on baking trays with a single
4. Bake them for an hour or so and then remove them from the appliance.
5. You can then use a towel to remove wetness if any.
6. Cook them for an hour or so to completely let them dry.
7. Now finally once you complete the procedure, let your heated mushrooms cool down and store it in airtight

In this way you can freeze mushrooms and then use these frozen mushrooms later in any of your meals by the process of drying given above.

So, all you mushrooms lovers now have the best way to be able to freeze mushrooms at home and afterwards, you can start cooking frozen mushrooms as well and have the best taste that you might have never had before.

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