Marinated Mushrooms for Winter
Home-marinated milk caps (gruzdi, a firm white wild mushroom in the Lactarius family, common across the Slavic table) live or die by discipline during prep. The heart of this method is a double boil that strips out the mushrooms’ natural bitterness and leaves the brine clear rather than cloudy.
The first boil, 10 minutes in lightly salted water, draws out grit and part of that bitterness, and that water gets poured off without exception. The second, longer boil is where the flavor of the finished appetizer actually forms.
Why mushrooms go moldy, and how to head it off. The usual culprit is a slip at the soaking stage. For a big haul, add roughly 20 g of salt and 2 g of citric acid per liter of soaking water from the start, and soak the milk caps up to two days, changing the water at least twice daily. The 70% vinegar essence goes in last, right before sealing; at that strength a half-teaspoon per half-liter jar is plenty. Keep the jars somewhere cool and dark, and dress the mushrooms with oil and raw onion just before serving.
Part of Ukrainian cuisine — 301 more recipes in the section.
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Ingredients
Instructions
Boil the rinsed mushrooms for 10 minutes in salted water (1 tbsp salt per 1 L water), then pour off the water.
Cover the mushrooms with fresh water, add 2 tbsp salt per 1 L water, and boil for 30-40 minutes.
Place 3-4 peppercorns and a bay leaf in the bottom of clean jars.
Pack the mushrooms in tightly and cover with the brine they were boiled in.
Sterilize the 0.5 L jars for 20 minutes.
Add 1/2 tsp of 70% vinegar essence to each jar and seal.
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