How to Pickle Chanterelles from Arkhangelsk Forests

The mushroom season continues in the Arkhangelsk region. One of the rarest and most valuable mushrooms is the chanterelle. Here is how to preserve this mushroom for the winter.

The common chanterelle is a valuable mushroom. It almost never contains worms; the mushroom contains chitinmannose, a substance that destroys insect larvae and prevents parasites from developing. Thanks to this, the mushroom retains its firmness and beneficial properties for a long time. Chanterelles also do not accumulate radioactive substances, making them the cleanest and safest mushroom in the forest, one that does not require long or intense heat treatment.

Evgenia, a reader of 29.RU, shared this recipe with the editorial team. She says there are plenty of chanterelles in the forest. They grow in «clusters» — if you spot a large mushroom, be sure to stir the moss nearby, as smaller ones are hiding there.

— Sometimes home cooks say chanterelles turn out rubbery after cooking. Try this recipe — the mushroom comes out delicious, and a jar disappears in a family of four in one sitting.

Ingredients:

Chanterelles — 1 kilogram (2.2 lb);

Salt — half a teaspoon.

For the marinade per one liter (0.26 gal):

Water — 1 liter;

70% vinegar — two teaspoons;

Salt — 1.5 teaspoons;

Sugar — one tablespoon;

Cloves — 3 pieces;

Bay leaf — one piece;

Black peppercorns — 3 pieces.

— First, sterilize the liter jars. You can do this in the oven at 180 °C (356 °F). Clean jars should be kept there for about 20 minutes, then allowed to cool in the turned-off oven. Lids can be sterilized in a pot of boiling water for about 10 minutes, — Evgenia explains.

For small mushrooms of roughly the same size, only the bottom part of the stem is cut off. Larger chanterelles are cut into pieces.

— Boil the chanterelles over high heat with salt until they come to a boil. Remove the foam with a slotted spoon. Reduce the heat and cook for 15 minutes. Then take them off, let them cool, and rinse with cold water in a colander so the excess water drains away, — says the home cook.

By this time, the marinade should be ready. How it is made:

— Boil one liter of water in a pot. When it boils, add the sugar, salt, bay leaf, cloves, and black pepper.

Then the mushrooms are placed into the pot with the boiling marinade and cooked for another 15 minutes.

— At the end, add the vinegar to the boiling marinade with the chanterelles and turn off the stove, — Evgenia comments.

Then the hot chanterelles with the marinade should be ladled into the sterilized jars.

— Make sure the marinade reaches the very edges of the jars, — the home cook clarifies.

After that, the jars are sealed with lids and turned upside down. They are covered with a thin blanket and left to cool.

The pickled chanterelles should be placed in a dark, cool spot or in the refrigerator until winter. Such preserves usually keep for six months.

Earlier, we told you how to properly fry chanterelles.

Speaking of winter preserves, raspberry jam is not the healthiest way to preserve for winter. By the way, read about which raspberry variety in the Arkhangelsk region bears fruit the longest — it should be planted as early as September.

Also take note of this unusual way of preserving cucumbers: a recipe was shared by a cardiac surgeon from Arkhangelsk. If you like this vegetable, you may also be interested in the recipe for cucumber salad for winter.

If your garden has produced more than just cucumbers, you can make a delicious assortment.