Salt-Cured Milk-Cap Mushrooms for Winter

Cooking method

1. Step 1:

   

   Gather the ingredients for salt-curing the milk caps. Carefully sort the freshly picked mushrooms, clean them, discard any wormy or damaged ones, rinse under running water, put them in a deep container, and cover with cold water.

2. Step 2:

   

   Leave the mushrooms to soak for a couple of days, changing the water several times so it doesn't go sour. This helps draw out their bitterness.

3. Step 3:

   

   Rinse the mushrooms again and put them in a pot, cutting the large caps into pieces so they're easier to fit into jars. Pour in clean cold water in which you've dissolved coarse rock salt at the rate of 3 tablespoons per quart of water. Bring to a boil and simmer the mushrooms over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Then drain them in a colander and discard the water.

4. Step 4:

   

   Pack the mushrooms into jars that you've sterilized by any reliable method — water bath, microwave, or oven. Along with the mushrooms, add a few peeled garlic cloves, dill umbels, and black peppercorns to each jar.

5. Step 5:

   

   Make the brine. Pour water into a pot and add coarse salt at the rate of 2 tablespoons per quart of water. Bring it to a boil so the salt fully dissolves, then immediately pour the boiling brine over the mushrooms in the jars so it completely covers them.

6. Step 6:

   

   Seal the jars with clean lids, let them cool to room temperature, and store them somewhere cold. Don't open a jar of salted milk caps until at least a month after making them, so the mushrooms cure properly and the bitterness is fully gone. Enjoy!