Drying mushroom Mr Allah Dad Khan Visiting Professor the University of Agriculture Peshawar

2. Drying Mushroom
A Lecture
By
Mr.Allah Dad Khan

3. Drying Mushrooms In The
Oven
 1.Clean the mushrooms you are going to
dry. If possible, use a brush or dry paper towel to
wipe any dirt off of the mushrooms. You want to
avoid getting the mushrooms wet while cleaning
them because the water could cause other
competing fungi or mold to grow on the
mushroom while they are drying or after they
have been stored. This extra fungi or mold could,
in turn, make you ill if you eat it.[1]If there are
renegade spots of dirt that won’t allow
themselves to be brushed away, you can use a
damp cloth or paper towel to scrub them off. Just
make sure to wipe that same spot with a dry
cloth or paper towel to absorb any moisture left
behind.

5. 2.Cut the mushrooms.
 The thicker the mushrooms, the
longer it takes for them to dry out. To
speed up the drying process, cut the
mushrooms into slices approximately
1/8 inch (0.3 cm) thick. They will still
have enough flavor packed into the
slices that they will be an excellent
addition to any dish, but they will dry in
a much shorter amount of time than
whole mushrooms.

7. 3.Place the mushrooms on a
baking sheet.
 Make sure that the mushrooms lay
flat and side by side. None of the
mushrooms should overlap, as this
could cause them to fuse together
while drying. Lay them out in one
layer.
 Do not oil the sheets, as the
mushrooms will absorb the oil,
changing their flavor and causing
them to take longer to dry.

10. 4.Preheat the oven to 150
degrees Fahrenheit (65 Celsius).
 Once the oven has reached the
designated temperature, place the
baking sheet with the mushrooms into
the oven. Leave the mushrooms in for
one hour.[2]

12. 5.Take the mushrooms out of
the oven after an hour.
 When you take them out, flip them
over so that they dry evenly. At this
time, blot any moisture that way have
risen on their surfaces during the
drying process. Use a paper towel or
dry cloth to remove any of the
moisture.

14. 6.Place the mushrooms back
in the oven.
 Bake the mushrooms for one more
hour or until they are completely
dried.When you pull the mushrooms
out, check to make sure they they do
not have any remaining moisture on
their surface. If they do, turn them
over and dab away any moisture with
a paper towel, then return them to the
oven.

17. 7.Continue to check the mushrooms
until they are fully dry
 . Repeat the baking and removing
moisture process until the mushrooms
are totally dry. A properly dehydrated
mushroom should snap apart like a
cracker.[3]

19. 8.Allow the mushrooms to
cool.
 Once you have taken them out of the
oven, allow the mushrooms to cool on
the baking sheet.Do not place them in
tupperware with a closed lid while they
are still hot as the heat might cause
condensation in the tupperware, thus
ruining all of your efforts

20. 9.Store the dried mushrooms
in air-tight canisters
 . Once they have cooled completely,
place the mushrooms in canisters with
working seals. Keep the canisters in a
dark, cool location until you are ready
to use your mushrooms in soup, a
baked pasta dish, or a yummy
risotto.[4]

21. Drying Mushroom Naturally

22. 1.Clean and slice the
mushrooms
 . As listed above, you should only
clean mushrooms with a brush or a
dry towel. Don’t use water, as water
logging the mushrooms may cause
outside mold or fungi to grow. Cut the
mushrooms into slices 1/2 inch (1.25
cm) thick.

24. 2.Check the weather.
 Try this method for preserving
mushrooms only on sunny days with
very low humidity. If there is too much
humidity in the air, it will take much
longer for the mushrooms to dry and
mold may begin to grow.

26. 3.Find a good location for
drying
 . Possibilities include sunny rooms,
windowsills, or flat rooftops that have
air circulation. Pick a spot where birds,
animals, bugs, and moisture can't
touch the mushrooms.[5]

28. 4.Arrange the mushrooms for
drying.
 There are two options for this. You can either
lay the mushrooms on a drying rack, or you
can string them up with cooking string.[6]On a
drying rack: Lay the mushrooms flat in one
layer. Make sure that none of them are
overlapping as they might get stuck together
while drying, or may warp into weird shapes.
Cover the mushrooms and drying rack in a
‘net tent’ which you can get at most kitchen
supply stores. The net tent will keep the bugs
away. If you don’t have a net tent, you can
simply use a piece of mesh fabric draped
over and under the dry rack and
mushrooms.[7]

30. With cooking string:
 Lace the cooking string through the
mushrooms. You can use a sterilized
needle to do this. Simply run the
needle through a flame to sterilize it.
Then string the mushrooms along the
string as if you were making a bead
necklace

33. 5.Place the mushrooms in the site
you selected for the drying area.
 If you are using the cooking string
method, hang them somewhere dry
and in the sun. Allow the mushrooms
to dry in the sun for one or two days.
Check their progress several times
each day.
 Consider finishing the mushrooms in
the oven if they aren't totally dry after
approximately two days in the sun.
Read Method One of this article to
learn how to do this

35. Freeze –Drying Mushroom

36. 1.Lay a paper towel on a flat
surface.
 Place cleaned and sliced mushrooms
on the paper towel. They should only
be in one layer, with none of the
mushrooms overlapping. If they
overlap, the mushrooms may fuse
together. It is very important that the
mushrooms be absolutely dry. If they
have even a little bit of water on them,
that water could turn to ice and spoil
the mushroom.

38. 2.Lay another paper towel down
on top of the mushrooms.
 Continue to lay mushrooms down in
single layers, and then placing paper
towels over those layers, until you
have used up all of the mushrooms
you want to dry.

40. 3.Slide these paper towel-mushroom
layers into a paper bag
 . It should go without saying that you
should use a large-ish paper bag that
can fit all of the paper towels and
mushrooms. The paper bag will allow
water vapors to pass through it as the
mushrooms dry.

42. 4.Place the paper bag in the
freezer
 . Overtime, your mushrooms will begin
to dry in the freezer. This is a much
slower process than the other two
methods listed above, but is effective--
particularly if you are not planning on
using your mushrooms immediately.[8]