The boletus, also known as the master mushroom, is probably the most coveted of all forest mushrooms. The noble mushrooms taste particularly good freshly fried in butter, but they can also be preserved by drying and freezing. Since the porcini mushroom is one of the mycorrhizal fungi and usually lives in a close symbiosis with spruce (but also other tree species such as beech, oak or pine), it cannot be grown in the home garden. If you want to eat porcini mushrooms, you have to look for them in the forest yourself - or if you're lucky, you can buy a bowl of fresh specimens in the supermarket.

Porcini mushrooms should not be washed

Properly identifying porcini mushrooms

Congratulations! You were successful and found some magnificent porcini mushrooms or even collected a whole basket. But before you proudly head home and process your find, you should take a good look at the mushrooms again: There are some species that look very similar to the porcini mushroom. These are not necessarily poisonous, but taste different and may also be processed differently. Caution is advised, especially with the inedible bile boletus. This differs from the porcini mushroom by the usually darker and coarser stalk network and the lighter cap. If the flesh and tubes turn blue when pressed or cut, it is usually chestnut boletus, which is also edible.

Pre-clean porcini mushrooms in the forest

In order to be able to determine the type of mushroom with certainty, you should not cut off the found specimens by the stem, but carefully twist them out with a knife. The lower part of the stem covered by the soil is essential for identification. If you are sure about the type of fungus, you can roughly pre-clean it in the forest: Maggots and eaten areas are generously cut away, and the fruiting bodies are cleaned of adhering soil and other plant parts such as leaves or needles. After determining, you can also cut off the lower part of the stem if it is very dirty and cannot be cleaned.

Be careful, maggots!

Porcini mushrooms are not only popular with people, they are also eaten by snails, maggots and other animals. Maggots are mainly found inside the mushroom, where they work their way up from the bottom. With a bit of bad luck, it can happen that a porcini mushroom that looks good on the outside is already bare on the inside. For this reason, you should always cut open porcini mushrooms lengthwise in the forest and generously remove any rotted insides. Don't take away mushrooms that have been eaten badly.

Clean porcini mushrooms - step by step

Arrived at home, the collected mushrooms should be cleaned and processed immediately. Forest mushrooms in particular spoil very quickly due to the very high protein and water content and should therefore not be left lying around at room temperature for a few hours. If the mushrooms cannot be used immediately, wash them thoroughly and then wrap them in a clean cloth or paper. Stored in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator, they will keep for up to two days.

And this is how you clean the sensitive mushrooms:

  • If you haven't already done so, cut away any food or maggot spots.
  • Tubes that are still light can remain, but if they are already dark or even greenish - cut away.
  • Thoroughly brush the whole mushroom with a clean mushroom brush.
  • Remove clinging soil and other dirt.
  • You can wipe the hat with a clean cloth.
  • If you haven't already done so, cut the fruiting body lengthways and check for maggots.
  • Cut away any maggot feeding.

In most cases, these cleaning measures are sufficient. Only with older specimens it may be necessary to peel both the handle and the cap.

Why shouldn't you wash mushrooms?

Now cleaning the porcini mushrooms is quite tedious and time-consuming - some would like to make it easier for themselves and simply wash the fruiting bodies instead of brushing them off. However, this step is only recommended for very heavily soiled specimens that cannot be cleaned sufficiently otherwise. To do this, place the mushrooms that have been cut and checked for maggots in a sieve and rinse them thoroughly with a powerful jet of water. Then dry them carefully with a dry cloth so that the mushrooms do not absorb too much water unnecessarily - they are not called "mushrooms" in Bavarian for nothing. Mushrooms that have been saturated with water quickly become mushy and lose a lot of their flavor.

tips

Caution: Porcini mushrooms available in supermarkets mostly come from Eastern Europe and may be heavily contaminated with heavy metals or radioactive substances. Since wild mushrooms can only be collected in Germany for small personal consumption and porcini mushrooms cannot be cultivated, forest mushrooms are always imported for commercial sale. This also applies to some other species, such as chanterelles.

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Vegetable garden