White mushroom - the king of mushrooms
White mushroom is considered the king of mushrooms, not only because of its impressive size, but also because of its taste and nutritional value. Another name for porcini mushroom is boletus, less often - cow. It grows mainly in Eurasia and North America, sometimes found in Syria and Lebanon.
White fungus can reach huge sizes - caps up to 50 cm in diameter and legs up to 25 cm in height. So why is it called white? The fact is that, unlike the rest, "black" mushrooms, it does not change its color when cut, cooked and dried. The rest of the mushrooms darken, turn brown or even turn black at the same time.
White mushrooms are valued for their taste and nutritional properties. When cooked properly, porcini mushroom is a real delicacy.
This mushroom belongs to the mushrooms of the first category. This means that it is better absorbed by the human body than other mushrooms, and this is undoubtedly much more important than just the content of nutrients. But with this, white mushrooms are all right.
White mushrooms contain more than others riboflavin - a substance responsible for the health and growth of nails, hair, skin and for the health of the body as a whole. Riboflavin is especially important for maintaining normal thyroid function.
Dried porcini mushrooms contain the alkaloid hercedin, which is used in the treatment of angina pectoris.
In Russian forests, white fungus is often found, in some places even plentifully. It grows mainly in birch, pine, oak and hornbeam forests and is very fond of sandy soil in pine forests. Grows in groups or singly.
According to the place of growth, white fungus is divided into:
white mushroom birch
He is distinguished by his light hat, sometimes it is almost white. The fungus grows in birch groves, on forest edges, along forest roads, but always under birch trees.The first mushrooms appear when rye begins to ear, so in some areas of central Russia they are also called spikelets.
The first mushrooms usually stand alone among the young grass, from the middle of summer they are found in groups. The stem of the mushroom is thick, not long.
white fungus pine
Other names for this mushroom: pine, boletus. Habitat: white fungus pine, as its name implies, grows almost exclusively under pine trees, loves white moss and sandy soils, is quite common.
There are two main "layers" of these mushrooms: the first in June, and then, the second, more abundant - in the fall.
Spruce porcini mushroom
Habitat: Spruce white fungus grows in spruce and spruce forests, singly or in small groups, from July to October. The main growth time is from the end of August. Its hat rarely reaches a diameter of 20 cm. The surface of the mushroom cap is usually uneven, bumpy, unevenly colored (there are darker and lighter areas), the color of the cap is brownish or brownish-brown. The tubular layer is white at a young age, turning yellow in adulthood. Pulp: dense, white, with a pleasant mushroom smell and sweetish taste, does not change color when broken.
Spore powder olive. Leg: relatively long, up to 18 cm, strong. Young mushrooms have an impressive thickening at the base, sometimes the stem is very deeply immersed in soft forest litter, and there is a pattern in the form of a light mesh on the stem.
white oak mushroom
The earliest type of porcini mushrooms appears in May. The cap of the white oak fungus is grayish at first, later brown, light coffee, smooth or wrinkled, gently velvety.
The mushroom bears fruit in "layers" until October. He likes deciduous forests with oaks and beeches, as well as hornbeams, lindens, in the south - with edible chestnuts.
Prefers a warm climate, more common in mountainous and hilly areas.
white mushroom mesh
The cap is initially hemispherical, later strongly convex, 6-30 cm in diameter. The skin is light brown, matte, velvety, dry, with age it can become covered with a network of cracks. The pulp is dense and fleshy, white, does not change on the cut, under the tubules it can acquire a yellowish tint. It has a mushroom smell and a sweetish or nutty taste. The leg is thick, fleshy, narrower in the upper part, brownish or brownish in color, covered with a large mesh pattern of lighter veins.
It grows more often in the forest with beech and hornbeam trees. It is found in Transcaucasia, Europe, North Africa and North America. The season is from June to September, not often and not plentifully.
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The mass collection of porcini mushrooms in the European part of Russia begins in the second half of August and lasts until the first half of September, however, ceps can also be found at other times. Usually, white mushrooms are harvested as long as they are not too big (with caps 5-10 cm in diameter).
White mushroom, like all mushrooms of the first category, is actively used in cooking both fresh (fried, boiled), and dried, salted and pickled. Dishes from porcini mushrooms can be cooked without additional (or after a very short - 10-15 minutes) boiling. Since porcini mushrooms do not darken when processed, they are often used in soups, where they produce a clear, clean broth.
If we talk about harvesting for the future, then the best method of preserving porcini mushroom is drying. It is in dried mushrooms that useful substances are best preserved. Collected mushrooms are cleaned of earth and debris. In large mushrooms, the legs are separated from the caps, if the mushrooms are very small, they are left whole.
You can dry porcini mushrooms in drying chambers or an oven. At the beginning of drying, a temperature of 50-60°C is recommended, at the end - 70-80°C. In dryers or an oven, mushrooms can be dried in 4-6 hours. Dried porcini mushrooms retain their taste and nutritional properties in the best way, they can be eaten as crackers without additional processing.
A wonderful, fragrant mushroom soup can be cooked in winter by soaking dried mushrooms in water for 20-25 minutes. Then boil a little in the same water, cut into the necessary pieces and add to the prepared dish. Water in which dried porcini mushrooms have been soaked or boiled can be used for sauces.
In addition to drying, porcini mushrooms can be frozen (the second easy way after drying for those who have freezers), as well as pickled and salted. Heat treatment of mushrooms for harvesting is, of course, good, but all the “salt” is in fresh mushrooms. Their aroma and taste are far superior to pickled and salted mushrooms. There are many folk and author's recipes for fresh porcini mushrooms. In addition to Russian cuisine, porcini mushrooms are very popular in French and Italian cuisine.
Recipes with porcini mushrooms
Mushroom soup (Russian folk recipe)
Ingredients: 
1 glass of pearl barley,
2-3 potatoes
2-3 carrots
1-2 onion heads
250-300 g porcini mushrooms,
butter, sour cream,
greens, seasonings and salt - to taste.
Cooking:
Cook pearl barley for about 3-4 hours over low heat until the broth becomes thick. Cut the mushroom legs into circles and fry with onions over low heat. It is better to fry in a frying pan with thick walls in order to "steam" the contents. Salt. 20 minutes before the end of cooking cereals, add potatoes, carrots and mushroom caps cut into medium-sized pieces. Then add the contents of the pan to the soup and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add seasonings to taste. Mushroom soup goes well with black allspice and bay leaf. Add a spoonful of butter. Cover and let steep for 20-30 minutes. Serve the soup in deep bowls, putting sour cream in each spoon and sprinkle with parsley and dill.
Cooking:
Defrost white mushrooms and cut into pieces.
Chop the leek and fry in a saucepan in half of the heated olive oil until golden brown. Add porcini mushrooms and cook, stirring, 6-7 minutes. Cut the mushrooms into slices and fry separately in the remaining olive oil, 5-6 minutes.
Pour 1 liter of water into a saucepan with porcini mushrooms, add half of the mushrooms and cook over low heat for 10 minutes. Puree the soup in a blender, return to the pan, bring to a boil. Add cream, salt, pepper and cook for 4 more minutes. Pour into bowls and garnish with remaining mushrooms.
"Mushroom" (an old Russian recipe)
Ingredients:
approximately equal amount of potatoes and porcini mushrooms,
butter, sour cream - to taste,
bay leaf, coriander, allspice peas - to taste.
Cooking:
Adult mushrooms (with a slightly greened core) cut into cubes. Cut the potatoes in the same cubes. Place them in cold water, bring to a boil, salt, add spices and cook until the potatoes are ready, plus another 10 minutes - the potatoes should boil a little. The result obtained in the form of puree soup is served with pieces of butter and sour cream to taste. It is important to keep the recipe minimalistic and not add onions or strong-smelling “potato” or “mushroom” seasonings. It is the balance of mushroom and potato flavors that is important in this dish.
Walnut Mushroom Soup Puree (Welsh Recipe)
Ingredients:
Cooking:
Boil the mushrooms in the broth for 20-25 minutes, add the nuts and cook for another 15-20 minutes until the mushrooms soften. Cool and grind everything in a blender. Lightly fry the leeks in oil and add the rice flour.
Stirring constantly, add chopped walnut-mushroom mixture and sherry and simmer for 15-20 minutes. At this stage, the dish can be cooled and stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 days to make the taste more even. Next, add sour cream and heat over low heat, avoiding boiling. Garnish with nuts or herbs before serving.
Alpine mushroom salad
Ingredients:
- 100 g white mushrooms,
- 200 g chanterelles,
- 1 tbsp garlic,
- 100 g fresh tomatoes,
- 2 tbsp fresh basil,
- 3 tbsp olive oil,
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp wine vinegar,
- parsley, dill - to taste.
Cooking:
Cut the mushrooms into cubes, tomatoes into slices and remove the seeds. Preheat the oven, grease a baking sheet with olive oil, put the mushrooms and garlic on it, mix and bake for 15-20 minutes until a light brown color appears. Let the mushrooms cool and mix with other ingredients.
Crispy porcini mushrooms in Italian
Ingredients: 
fresh porcini mushrooms, flour, olive oil, salt.
Cooking:
Cut large mushrooms into slices, and small ones can be whole. Roll them in flour.
To moisten the flour and make the mushrooms crispy, dip each slice in cool water and fry in hot oil until golden brown.
Dry the mushrooms in absorbent paper, season with salt and serve hot.
Mushroom fondue in Italian
Ingredients:
- 200 g dry white wine
- 100 g Marsala wine
- 200 g dried porcini mushrooms,
- 400-450 g of various cheeses (parmesan, fontina, emmentaler),
- 2-3 tbsp flour,
- 1 clove of garlic
- black pepper to taste.
Cooking:
Heat Marsala to a boil, pour dried mushrooms into it and leave for an hour. Grind cheeses and mix with flour. Rub an enamel pot or fondue cauldron with garlic, pour white wine into it, and place over low heat. When the wine is almost boiling, add the cheese in small portions, making sure that it has time to melt before adding the next portion.
Squeeze the mushrooms out of the wine and cut them into small pieces. Add mushrooms and freshly ground pepper to the fondue. Serve with fondue several types of bread and sausages.
How to fry porcini mushrooms with onions
Ingredients: 2 onions, 300-500 g mushrooms, black pepper, salt, 3 tbsp. tablespoons of vegetable oil.Rinse the sorted mushrooms, pour over with boiling water and cut into slices along the stem. Then salt and pepper them. Put the mushrooms in a heated pan with vegetable oil. Fry them for 10-15 minutes, stirring gently. At this time, fry the chopped onion rings until golden brown in a separate frying pan. Mix fried porcini mushrooms with fried onions and serve.
How to fry porcini mushrooms with sour cream
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon of flour, 0.5 cups of sour cream, 300-400 g of porcini mushrooms, 3 tbsp. tablespoons of vegetable oil.Fry the mushrooms as in the recipe with onions, and when the mushrooms turn golden, add flour and sour cream to the pan with mushrooms and mix. Bring the mushrooms with sour cream to a boil and fry over low heat, stirring, for another 5-7 minutes.
How to dry porcini mushrooms
To do this, the mushrooms are not washed, but only cleaned of debris, cut lengthwise into two or more parts (this depends on the size of the mushroom). Dry in the oven on a wire rack at a temperature of 50 - 70 degrees, for 7-12 hours. Store them in a dry place in a tightly closed container. Dried porcini mushrooms retain their taste and nutritional properties in the best way, they can be eaten as crackers without additional processing.The biggest advantage of dried porcini mushroom is that it can be cooked all year round, namely: boil soups, fry, use as a filling for pies. Since during drying, the porcini mushroom does not lose its beneficial properties and unique aroma.
For soups, dried mushrooms are soaked in warm water, washed and soaked in second water until completely swollen. After that, the mushrooms are cut into small pieces, and the water is used for the broth.
How to pickle porcini mushrooms
Ingredients: 1.5 kg of white mushrooms; 1 liter of water; 1.5 - 2 tablespoons of salt; 1 st. a spoonful of granulated sugar; 2-3 bay leaves; 4-6 peas of allspice; 1 teaspoon - 70-80 percent vinegar essence; some cloves.Boil the washed porcini mushrooms in a saucepan for about 15-20 minutes. Drain the water. Pour the boiling marinade of water, salt, sugar and vinegar over the mushrooms. Boil the mushrooms in the marinade for another 3-5 minutes.
In a dry prepared sterilized jar, add black pepper - peas, bay leaf, cloves. You can add garlic, basil, parsley and other spices and herbs.
Carefully place the mushrooms in a jar and pour over the marinade, and close the jar tightly.