Key technical points for drying and processing edible fungi and preservation methods
Almost all edible fungi, such as shiitake mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, lion's mane mushrooms, straw mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, button mushrooms, and silver ear mushrooms, can be made into dried products.
Drying and processing can be divided into sun-drying, oven-drying, and hot-air drying.
Spring has more cloudy and rainy days, so shiitake mushrooms and wood ear mushrooms are often mainly oven-dried; summer and autumn have scorching sun and high temperatures, which is the straw mushroom production season, so sun-drying is often the main method.
Hot-air drying is not affected by environmental conditions, can be carried out in all four seasons, is suitable for all kinds of mushrooms, and produces good-quality dried products.
The quality of drying is also closely related to mushroom harvesting, grading, stem trimming, cleaning, and slicing. When harvesting shiitake mushrooms, grading should be combined with harvesting, separating them by size, shape, and thickness; flower shiitake and thick shiitake should be separated separately; tall-stemmed mushrooms, deformed mushrooms, and small mushroom bits should be treated as substandard. Then cut off the base of the mushroom stem (mushroom foot), leaving the stem 2-3 cm long, and at the same time remove weeds and wood chips, but do not use water.
Drying method: first sun-dry the graded fresh mushrooms for one day, then dry them over charcoal fire; they can also be continuously sun-dried, but never pile them up to ferment before they are dry. If drying over charcoal fire, the temperature should go from low to high, first drying at 20-30°C for 6-8 hours, then drying at 50-60°C for 2-3 hours until the mushroom stems are completely dry. Turn the oven-dried mushrooms by hand until they rustle and crumble easily when pinched; after cooling, they can be stored in plastic bags.
When oven-drying, note that charcoal or coal fire must not produce smoke or off-odors, and strictly prevent broken mushrooms from falling in and producing smoke, otherwise the quality of the dried mushrooms will be affected. To make the heat disperse evenly, an iron plate can be placed over the fire; where conditions permit, a blower can be used to send hot air or steam pipes can be used to send warm air for drying.
To dry straw mushrooms, select mushroom eggs of uniform size, remove mud and sand, then use a knife to make two crosswise vertical cuts from the base, cutting 2/3 of the length of the mushroom egg into four sections; after sun-drying, they are called orchid mushrooms. Some are cut vertically once from the side, leaving the base uncut, or cut into two sections; after cutting, they can be sun-dried on a concrete yard. Dried mushroom egg slices should be cut into vertical slices with a slicing machine and hot-air dried to ensure quality. Oyster mushrooms, phoenix-tail mushrooms, and enoki mushrooms can all be sun-dried or oven-dried whole.