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In deciduous forests, birch groves, along the edges of reservoirs, streams and lakes, you can often find waves - an attractive type of mushroom with flat pink or white caps. The specificity of their preparation is such that mushrooms must be processed before preparing delicious dishes. You should learn more about how to soak the waves before salting, frying or cooking on the eve of the "hot" summer season of mushroom preparations.
Do I need to soak the waves
Volzhanka, or volzhanka, both pink and white varieties, is most often eaten in a salted form. To make the final product tasty, without bitterness, the mushrooms must be soaked before salting. The duration of the process should be 2 - 3 days, with periodic water changes. Be sure to soak the waves before other methods of culinary processing: cooking, frying or pickling. This is due to the fact that this type of mushroom family, when cut, secretes a bitter whitish juice, which gives an unpleasant aftertaste to the finished dish. Soaking for several days with periodic water changes allows you to get rid of this juice and, as a result, get a high-quality, tasty and healthy product.
How to properly soak waves
Before soaking, the waves brought from the forest must:
- sort;
- clear;
- rinse thoroughly.
White and pink species are sorted separately, cleaning and soaking are carried out in different dishes. The legs are cut off by 2/3, the affected areas (eaten by worms or dry) are cut out. With the help of a knife, remove sand, earth, adhering leaves. A stiff brush is suitable for cleaning, which quickly and well removes dirt. Prepared mushrooms are poured with cold, ideally with settled or filtered water and left in a cool place. The waves are soaked for 2 - 3 days, during which the liquid is changed 5 - 7 times. If it becomes cloudy, change the water more often. Salt is added to the soaking water in the calculation of 5% of the total weight of the waves. Mushrooms ready for further culinary processing become soft, do not break, but bend: these are signs that the soaking process has come to an end. The mushroom mass is thrown into a colander, washed and allowed to completely drain the liquid.
In what dishes
The best option for dishes in which you need to soak the waves before cooking, frying or salting is an enameled volumetric saucepan. The dishes are taken in such a way that the water completely covers the mushrooms.
It is not recommended to soak the waves in a plastic bucket, as the saline solution causes the release of toxic substances harmful to human health. In an exceptional case, you can soak Volzhanka in a bucket made of food, not industrial plastic. A special marking on the bottom of the container will indicate the type of material.
The PVC icon indicates that the dishes are made of polyvinyl chloride, which in an alkaline environment releases a significant amount of chemical compounds that are dangerous to human health. In such buckets, mushrooms are not soaked, and even more so, they are not salted.
In what water to soak the waves before salting
Soaking the waves before pickling or salting is performed in cold, salted water. For 10 kg of purified mushroom mass, add 50 g of table, non-iodized salt and a little citric acid. Ideally, the water should be filtered, settled.
How to soak the waves so that they do not sour
So that the process of fermentation and souring does not begin in the water for soaking, it is regularly changed. For the three days necessary for soaking the waves, the liquid is drained 6 - 7 times, that is, 3 times a day, while the raw material is poured in a new portion each time. When cloudy, the water is changed more often - up to 5 times a day, which avoids acidification. Added salt and citric acid (10 g and 2 g per liter of water) also inhibits fermentation. Souring can occur in the case of poor cleaning and washing of the waves before soaking.
Do you need oppression when soaking the waves
To prevent volzhanki from floating up during soaking, they are pressed down with oppression. For this, a wooden circle or a glass flat plate is used, on which strong, flint stones are placed, enriching the mineral composition of the solution. Instead of stones, you can use a regular glass jar filled with water. The same oppression is useful for cold salting of representatives of the mushroom family.
How and how much to soak the waves before salting
You can salt the waves in a cold or hot way. In the first case, after soaking, they are placed in a prepared container, sprinkled with salt and spices. Then they put oppression and put it away for salting in a cool place. In order to completely get rid of the bitter, unpleasant aftertaste, mushroom raw materials should be soaked for 2 to 3 days, with regular water changes. Since the cold method of salting does not imply any heat treatment, you should be careful about cleaning, washing and soaking the mushrooms. For hot cooking technology, the product is soaked less, optimally for two days in a cool, dark place. After that, for hot and cold salting, the caps that have changed their color and structure are re-treated with a soft sponge, thrown into a colander so that the liquid is glass.
How much and how to soak the waves before cooking and frying
In addition to salting, the waves are soaked for a certain time before other methods of cooking. To prepare fried and boiled mushroom dishes, Volzhanka is soaked for a period of 1 - 2 days, with a periodic change of cold water. After that, the mushroom mass is thoroughly washed, boiled for 15 - 20 minutes, then fried or stewed in sour cream, sauce. Mushroom dishes are eaten immediately, without delay until the next day.
Volnushki are conditionally edible mushrooms that need to be pretreated before being eaten. Soak the mushroom for the recommended time. Otherwise, the product will be unusable, as it can provoke poisoning with toxic poisons.
What do the waves look like after soaking
After soaking, the mushroom caps become soft and pliable, completely changing their structure. Unlike raw ones, they do not break, but bend. In addition, they lose their crunchy quality during the steeping process. The color of the caps turns from light pink to grayish, darker.In the process of salting or other cooking methods, the mushrooms change color even more, darken.
Summing up the rules for processing waves before salting, it is important to highlight the main points:
- mushrooms are sorted by type and size in order to further process each category separately;
- after that, the prepared raw materials are necessarily soaked in cold water with the addition of salt and citric acid for 2 - 3 days, with a change of liquid 7 - 8 times for the whole time;
- the liquid must completely cover the mushrooms;
- do not use metal, copper or galvanized dishes;
- the hot method of salting is safer for health, since all bacteria die during heat treatment, and further cold salting makes it possible for the product to maintain high taste;
- after soaking, the waves are thrown into a colander and allowed to drain off the water.
A little about soaking mushrooms - in the video:
What to do with the waves after soaking
After soaking, the mushrooms are thrown into a colander and allowed to drain, after which they are boiled or immediately salted. In the first case, for hot salting, the mushroom mass is boiled from the moment of boiling for 15 minutes, the water is drained and sprinkled with salt. In the second, "cold" method of salting, the soaked product is placed in a previously prepared container - jars or other container - sprinkled with salt and spices, covered with gauze and put under oppression in a cool place.
Conclusion
It is necessary to soak the waves before salting and pickling in the same way as other representatives of plate and tubular varieties containing milky juice. This pre-treatment will allow you to get a delicious delicacy that you can enjoy with pleasure in winter.
