What to do with the foam that forms when cooking mushrooms?

Mushrooms are an excellent source of protein, as well as an excellent analogue of meat for those who build their diet without it. But in structure, that product is about as porous as a sponge. Only these pores are much smaller. Therefore, it is not for nothing compared with a sponge. Mushrooms absorb a lot of things from the environment: useful and not very. Cooking will save. But many inexperienced gourmets are alarmed that when cooking mushrooms, foam forms.

What is foam?

We all know that during boiling, some of the substances pass from products to the broth: vitamins, fats, salts. The same goes for protein. If fat forms recognizable fat droplets that spread on the surface of the water with a thin film, then the protein is released during heat treatment and goes into the water, coagulates. Hence the foam.

During cooking, it folds even stronger, becoming like dirty, black rags. This applies both to the foam from cooking meat, and from cooking mushrooms. Moreover, mushrooms - especially since, due to their loose structure, they form it much more actively: it is easier for a protein to be released.

Do I need to remove the foam when cooking mushrooms?

Foam is not only ugly rags on the surface of the broth. Potentially hazardous components come out of the product with it:

• harmful, even poisonous substances that they contain by nature (we are talking about conditionally edible mushrooms, such as, for example, morels or lines);
• natural bitterness;
• everything that they managed to absorb into themselves while they were growing (including harmful microorganisms, radiation, salts of heavy metals).

In addition, eggs or parasite larvae, small worms, and similar unfriendly animals, which love to live in the tender, juicy and nutritious pulp of fungi, are destroyed during cooking.

Now it’s clear why to remove the foam: this is how we clean water from all harmful substances, where mushrooms are cooked. If you simply pour the resulting broth at the end of cooking, this effect will not happen, because these sponges can perfectly absorb everything back from the foam.

If mushroom drying is planned, then boiling is not required before it: this is done before using the dried product directly for cooking. But before freezing for the future, further frying or subsequent pickling for the winter, boiling is a necessary item.

If you plan to fry the mushrooms after boiling, then be sure to salt the cooking water. Otherwise, the salt added during frying will make the fibers stiff.

By the way, subsequent frying is also a heat treatment, which is important to consider. So when preparing mushrooms for “going to the pan”, the time for preliminary boiling makes sense to reduce by 10-15 minutes.

Removed and forgot?

Catching foam with a slotted spoon and forget about it until the end of cooking the product is unwise. After all, it is formed constantly, and each portion contains one or another "nuisance". So you have to shoot it all the time, literally standing above the pan with a slotted spoon.

Like different types of meat, different types of mushrooms boil differently:

• champignons - 5 minutes;
• oyster mushrooms, mushrooms (these are pre-soaked) - 15 minutes;
• boletus, chanterelles - 20 minutes;
• russula - 30 minutes;
• white - 40 minutes;
• birch bark - 40-50 minutes;
• honey agarics - 50-60 minutes.

If you are not sure if the product is ready, remove it from the heat. Ready mushrooms will sink to the bottom.

It is recommended to cook “especially resistant” mushrooms (brown boletus, honey agarics, porcini) by draining the water several times, washing, and then continuing to cook in new water. But the foam will appear again, so it needs to be removed again! Only in this way can you be sure that the maximum of harmful substances will go away.And so that the broth “takes” as little useful as possible, it is necessary to boil in a small amount of water.

Preparatory stage

Before sending mushrooms to cook, simple preparatory measures are needed:

1. sorting by quality;
2. cleaning;
3. trimming of damaged places (spots, “undershots”, wormholes, sections eaten by slugs).

Old mushrooms also remove blackness under the hat. Do it all right after the harvest.

Next, the product is washed, if necessary, soaked, then boiled.

If cooking is scheduled for tomorrow, after cleaning, the mushrooms are not washed, cut, and sent to the refrigerator.

For those species that do not require pre-soaking, washing should be as quick as possible. Absorb excess water they do not need.

So, mushrooms - a product that requires extensive processing. If you follow all the rules, change the water, remove the foam formed during cooking mushrooms, you can cook not only tasty, but also healthy dishes.