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If the milk mushrooms have darkened, this is usually not a reason for panic - the process is quite natural. But at the same time, it is interesting to know for what reasons the mushrooms darken, and what can be done in such a situation.
Why do milk mushrooms darken
White milk mushrooms delight fans of mushroom pulp not only with taste, but also with a pleasant light color. However, during processing, an unexpected problem often arises - the white milk mushrooms turn black or change color to dark blue and dark brown. You can face the fact that the product has darkened at any stage of cooking - when soaking, boiling, and even during the salting process.
Seeing that the milk mushrooms have darkened, inexperienced mushroom pickers are often frightened and think that they have collected false inedible doubles. But in fact, darkening is a natural process and does not contain any danger.
Fresh pulp contains milky juice, which gives raw mushrooms an unpleasant bitter aftertaste. When the pulp is cut or cracked, this juice enters into a chemical reaction with the air and first becomes yellow-gray in color, and then completely blackens. If the mushroom caps turn black, this means that milk is left in their pulp, which has changed its color from interaction with oxygen and other environmental factors.
Mushroom caps turn black from interaction with air
Why milk mushrooms darken when soaked
White milk mushrooms belong to the highest food category, in other words, they are one of the safest, most delicious and healthy mushrooms. However, it is not advised to use them raw - first, the collected fruit bodies must be soaked in water. Moreover, soaking takes a fairly large amount of time - from 1 to 3 days.
Soaking the mushroom pulp is necessary not only in order to remove possible toxins, but also so that it does not turn black. Prolonged soaking removes the milky juice and preserves the pleasant white color of the flesh, as well as eliminates the bitter taste.
During the soaking process, the water must be regularly replaced with fresh water. Otherwise, the pulp will continue to contact its own milky juice and, accordingly, will most likely turn black and remain bitter.
If the soaked milk mushrooms darken right in the water, there may be several reasons:
- The specimens collected in the forest have been exposed to air without water for too long and have already begun to change their color.
- When soaking, the water was not changed for a long time, so both the mushrooms and the liquid itself darkened.
- There was not enough water in the container with the mushroom caps, and they partially came into contact with the air.
So that the mushroom caps do not turn black, they need to be soaked immediately.
Also, a problem may appear if a container with soaked mushroom caps was exposed to light, and exposure to ultraviolet rays caused them to darken even under water.
Why do milk mushrooms darken when cooking
Sometimes you can face the fact that light hats darkened not during the soaking process, but already during boiling. Most often, there is only one reason - there is not enough water in the pan to cover the fruit bodies entirely.
Milky juice, due to which an unpleasant situation with a color change occurs, permeates all the pulp. Accordingly, even with a long soaking, it does not completely leave and remains in a small amount in the pulp. If the fruit bodies were cooked in a small saucepan and partially protruded above the water, then from contact with air, the remains of the milky juice could well lead to the staining of the pulp in a dark color.
It is recommended to pour more water during boiling.
Why do milk mushrooms darken when salted
Another popular cooking option for long-term storage is salting. Sometimes the fruit bodies are pre-boiled, sometimes they are only soaked and immediately put into a jar, abundantly sprinkled with salt and spices.
In both cases, you can face the fact that the salted milk mushrooms turned blue in the jar just a few hours after salting. There are 2 reasons why milk mushrooms darken in banks:
- The fruit bodies were old and overripe. There is more milky juice and bitterness in mature caps, therefore, during processing, you can often find them darkened and did not taste too pleasant.
- Not enough salt was poured into the jar, and as a result, the brine turned out to be small, it could not completely cover the mushroom pulp. In this case, it can be argued that the product has darkened from contact with air.
If the fruit bodies have darkened after salting, then it is recommended to remove them from the jar and carry out the procedure again, with fresh mushrooms or a large amount of brine.
In the process of salting, it is better not to spare salt.
Why did the brine darken when salting milk mushrooms
Sometimes it happens that during the cold processing of fresh mushrooms, it is not the milk mushrooms in the jar that darkened, but the brine itself in which they lie. The reasons remain the same - a change in color means that the fruiting bodies are overripe, or there is not enough salt in the jar to generate the required amount of brine.
If the brine has darkened, then in any case this indicates a violation of the technology of salting mushrooms. It is better to pour the salted liquid out of the jar, rinse the mushroom caps thoroughly and salt them again, observing all the rules, carefully monitoring the volume of the brine.
Darkened mushroom caps are still edible, but may be less tasty
Is it possible to eat milk mushrooms if they are darkened
A very relevant question is whether it is possible to eat the darkened mushroom pulp, or it is better to throw it away. The answer depends on the situation - in most cases the mushrooms remain edible, but sometimes they really should be replaced:
- Sometimes it happens that the fruit bodies darkened even before processing, right in the basket on the way home or on the table, before they were immersed in water for soaking. In the first case, this indicates overripe, in the second, that they were left in the air for a long time. Such milk mushrooms can be thrown away, even if they did not have time to really deteriorate, it will be difficult to remove bitterness from them and return the pulp to a light color.
- If the fruit bodies have darkened already in cold water, during boiling or in the process of salting, then it is not necessary to dispose of them. Typically, mushrooms can still be returned to their white color and good taste.
In general, if milk mushrooms turn blue after salting, boiling or soaking, this does not mean that they are unsuitable for food. Blackened caps may turn out to be less beautiful and less pleasant to the taste, therefore it is recommended to take measures to return them to a light shade.
Darkened milk mushrooms can be bleached
What to do so that the milk mushrooms do not darken
If the mushroom bodies have darkened, then you can whiten them, but this will take some effort.It is easier to prevent discoloration and try to prevent the mushrooms from darkening at all.
You can preserve the light shade of white milk mushrooms if you follow several recommendations:
- It is necessary to collect young and fresh specimens in the forest, the younger the lump, the less bitter milky juice in its pulp.
- Immediately upon arrival home, the milk mushrooms must be immersed in water for soaking, so that they do not darken, the water must cover them entirely. Fruit bodies should not be left in the air for a long time, otherwise discoloration will become almost inevitable.
- In the process of soaking, the water must be regularly drained and changed to fresh every few hours, otherwise the meaning of the treatment will be lost, and a situation will arise when the milk mushrooms not only darkened, but also remained bitter.
- When boiling, the mushroom bodies must also be filled with water entirely so that the liquid covers the mushrooms by about 1 cm from above. Then, during the cooking process, they will not come into contact with oxygen, and you will not have to face the fact that the mushrooms have darkened.
- When salting, it is necessary to follow the classical processing technologies and sprinkle each layer of mushroom pulp with a sufficient amount of salt. A couple of days after conservation, the brine should cover the fruit bodies entirely; there should be no "pockets" with air in the jar.
In order to better remove the milky juice from the pulp of the mushrooms, they must be soaked before salting according to the standard algorithm. It is also recommended to boil the mushrooms, in which case, when preserved, they will contain a minimum of milky juice.
When soaking the caps, the water must be changed more often.
How to whiten milk mushrooms
If an unpleasant situation still arises, and the fruiting bodies have darkened, you can try to bleach the mushrooms. They do it as follows:
- fruit bodies that have darkened are laid in a saucepan and completely filled with water - the liquid should cover the mushrooms entirely;
- several large tablespoons of salt and a little citric acid are added to the water - the water should become a little sour;
- darkened mushrooms are boiled in sour-salty liquid for 15 minutes.
After that, the solution is drained, and the mushrooms are again poured with clean water and boiled for another quarter of an hour without adding citric acid and salt. Usually, already at the first stage of processing, the original light color returns to the mushrooms.
If the salted milk mushrooms have darkened, then the brine from the jar must be drained, and the fruit bodies must be immersed in cold water for several hours. After that, they are boiled according to the algorithm given above, and then salted again, carefully controlling the amount of salt.
Useful Tips
There are secrets so that the milk mushrooms do not darken even before the start of processing. First of all, immediately upon arrival from the forest, it is recommended to put them in cold water. It is best to peel and cut fruit bodies directly in water.
If the fruit bodies in a container with water constantly float to the surface, they can be pressed down with a load so that they do not darken. Mushroom caps protruding above the water, one way or another, come into contact with air.
Since the color of the mushroom pulp is influenced not only by the air, but also by the light of the sun, it is necessary to soak the fruit bodies in a shaded place. Do not leave a bowl on a lighted windowsill.
Citric acid will help to restore white color to mushrooms
Conclusion
If the milk mushrooms have darkened, they can be bleached in simple ways - a change in color most often does not mean that the mushroom bodies have deteriorated. But it is easier from the very beginning to process the mushroom pulp correctly, in which case it will not change color.
