The classic recipe for mushroom marinade.
Marinated mushrooms are a great cold snack, a good addition to the winter diet, but above all they are a way to preserve mushrooms for a long time. This storage method is especially relevant for residents of apartment buildings who do not have their own cellar.
There are many different marinade recipes, pickling methods differ both in recipe and technology.
Consider the simplest, classic marinade recipe. On its basis, each housewife can easily assemble her own author's recipe.
Basic recipe for mushroom marinade.
It has four main ingredients and a few additional ingredients. The main ingredients are needed as a "preservative base", they help keep pickled foods for a long time. We add additional ones to give our pickled mushrooms a unique taste.
Marinade for mushrooms: main components
- Water
- Acid
- Salt
- Sugar
The most common drinking water should be taken for the marinade . Mineral and carbonated water is not suitable for making marinades. You can use regular tap water after pre-boiling.
As an acid for pickling mushrooms, ordinary acetic acid, the so-called "table vinegar", is used. Most modern recipes are based on 8% or 9% table vinegar. Very old recipes may contain acetic acid (we sold it as "Acetic Essence") 30%. Translated European recipes can contain table vinegar, 8-9-10% vinegar, and more concentrated essences. Take a close look at both the percentage in the recipe and what is written on your bottle.
You can try using apple cider vinegar or other wine vinegar, but experiment with a small amount of mushrooms: Wine vinegar has a strong enough flavor of its own that can completely kill the mushroom flavor. Using balsamic vinegars for pickling mushrooms is not recommended: it will be difficult to calculate the percentage of acid and the taste of the finished product will not be mushroom at all.
Coarse salt is used, the so-called "Rock salt", ordinary, without iodine additives.
We also use the most common sugar, white granulated sugar, not brown sugar.
Now about the proportions. Different types of mushrooms require different amounts of water. It is important that ready-made mushrooms in jars are completely covered with marinade. Therefore, it is recommended to make a marinade with a small "margin".
If you marinate freshly picked, raw mushrooms, then for 1 kg of mushrooms it is enough to take 1/2 glass of water: when heated, the mushrooms will abundantly release liquid and decrease in volume.
If you marinate pre-boiled mushrooms, then for 1 kg of mushrooms of water you need to take 1 glass of water.
For 1 glass of water:
- Table vinegar 9% - 2/3 cup
- Rock salt - 60-70 grams (4-5 tablespoons without a "slide")
- Granulated sugar - 1 teaspoon
Imagine: that's all. You don't need anything else to cook pickled mushrooms. The mushrooms will be stored for a couple of years, it is important not to keep the jars in the sun and near the battery. Everything else can be added just before serving: onions, aromatic vegetable oil, a few drops of balsamic vinegar, ground black or red pepper.
But a simple basic recipe is boring. I want it to be tasty right away, so that you can open the jar and immediately serve the mushrooms on the table. Therefore, the classic recipe includes not only preservatives, but also spices.
Marinade for mushrooms: additional components
The basic recipe for mushroom marinade includes (per 1 glass of water):
- Black peppercorns - 2-3 peas
- Allspice peas - 3-4 peas
- Clove - 3-4 "cloves"
- Bay leaf - 2 pieces
This set makes a wonderful marinade with a light own taste. This is the real classic mushroom marinade recipe.
You can increase or decrease the amount of peppercorns, you can not add something at all, for example, when pickling porcini mushrooms, you can not add cloves so that it does not clog the taste of the mushrooms.
The list of additional ingredients can be expanded depending on taste preferences.
You can add to the mushroom marinade:
- Cinnamon (ground or with chopsticks)
- Dill (dry)
- Garlic (cloves)
- Tarragon (tarragon)
- Coriander
- Horseradish leaf
- Horseradish root
- Cherry leaf
- Cherry twigs (thin, but with bark, last year's growth)
- Black currant leaf
- Black currant twigs (thin, last year's growth)
- Oak leaf
- Red chilli
Horseradish, cherries, black currants and oak not only add their own shades to the taste of the marinade, but also strongly influence the texture of pickled mushrooms: they make the pulp denser and crisp.
Do not add too many additional ingredients from the second list at the same time. Each of them can greatly change the taste of the finished product.Pickled mushrooms do not need to be rolled up, we close them with ordinary dense plastic lids. Store in a cool, dark place.
Store the opened jar in the refrigerator.
The mushroom marinade is not reused.
In this article, only the recipe for mushroom marinade itself is given, this is a basic recipe and recommendations for changing it. Read about the technology of pickling mushrooms in the article "Pickled mushrooms".
In conclusion, I want to say a completely obvious thing that we often forget.
If you are experimenting with a recipe, remember to write down what changes you made. And do not just write down somewhere in your notebook - do not forget to label the banks. Do not expect that after six months, looking at the jar, you will remember what ingredients you put there.
Let's say you used a basic marinade recipe with ground cinnamon and cherry leaves. Believe me, it is impossible to distinguish a bay leaf from a cherry leaf through glass. Write down the modified recipe in your notebook in full, and stick stickers with the shortened version of "Butter, marinade + cinnamon + cherry" on the jars. And be sure to write the date of preparation there, on the sticker.