Pickling

Which mushrooms are made for pickling?

Not every mushroom behaves well in a marinade. David Arora and culinary experts note that a marinade completely "kills" a mushroom's delicate natural aroma, replacing it with the sharp taste of vinegar, cloves and pepper. That's why for pickling you choose mushrooms valued not for a refined scent but for a crunchy or tender texture.

The best candidates (according to M. Ya. Zerova):

1. Slippery jacks (Suillus): A classic of the genre. Their tender, slightly jelly-like (after boiling) texture pairs perfectly with a sour marinade. The golden rule: always peel the slimy skin off the cap before boiling, or the marinade will turn into a black jelly.

2. Honey fungus (Armillaria): Small, unopened honey fungus caps on short stems are the crunchiest pickled mushrooms of all. They hold their shape beautifully.

3. Xerocomus boletes and bay boletes: They have firm flesh that soaks up the marinade well.

4. Miniature porcini: Tiny young porcini the size of a walnut are often pickled whole as an elite appetizer.

Rules for safe pickling

1. Always boil first: Before you pour the marinade over the mushrooms and seal the jars, you must boil them for 15-20 minutes in clean water or salted boiling water. This kills unwanted microflora and shrinks the mushrooms in volume.

2. Botulism risk: Soil on mushroom stems can carry spores of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. In a hermetically sealed jar without oxygen, this bacterium produces the deadly toxin botulinum. That's exactly why the marinade must be acidic enough (vinegar blocks the bacterium's growth). Never seal pickled mushrooms with metal lids if you have any doubt about the recipe or how clean the mushrooms are (better to close them with a plastic lid and keep them in the fridge).