The recipe is suitable for pickling 1.7 kg of cleaned flap mushrooms (and other good edible mushrooms that do not require extensive boiling to remove toxins).
Pickling brine for flap mushrooms:
- 800 ml water
- 175 ml Wösel Apple Cider Vinegar with Honey
- 1 onion
- 1 carrot
- 6 black pepper grains
- 4–5 clove grains
- 3 allspice grains
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 tbsp. sugar (not a very large heaping)
- 5 tbsp. salt (not a very large heaping)
In addition:
- 10 garlic cloves
- 200 ml Wösel Apple Cider Vinegar or a couple tablespoons of 30% vinegar or weak citric acid solution (read below)
- 1–1.5 l water
Before you put the flap mushrooms in the pickling brine, the cleaned and chopped mushrooms should be placed in a large pot and boiled over with vinegar or a citric acid solution. This will prevent the mushrooms from turning dark when in contact with water, and the pickling brine will not be very slimy. So, place chopped and cleaned mushrooms in a pot and pour 1–1.5 litres of water into the bottom of the pot. The water does not need to cover the mushrooms, as a great deal of liquid will be released from the mushrooms when heated, and at the end of heating, all of the mushrooms will be nicely covered with liquid.
I also immediately added 200 ml of Wösel Apple Cider Vinegar with honey to the water, although a weak citric acid solution is also suitable for pre-cooking or a couple of tablespoons of ordinary 30% vinegar can be added to the cooking water. We recommend citric acid or strong vinegar, as after boiling the mushrooms, the mushrooms must be poured into a sieve, the excess liquid should be discarded, and the mushrooms washed under running water.
Boil the mushrooms for about 10 minutes, during which excess liquid will be released from the mushrooms. What remains is half the amount of mushrooms that were initially placed in the pot. When boiling, use medium heat and remove the foam that forms, then there is no risk that the frothy liquid will begin to press itself over the edge of the pot. Once the mushrooms have been properly rinsed, leave them to drain on a sieve and prepare the pickling brine with which to put the mushrooms in the jar.
In a saucepan, mix together all the pickling brine ingredients, except vinegar and garlic. Let the pickling brine rise to a boil, add vinegar and flap mushrooms and boil the mushrooms together with the brine for a few minutes. Garlic cloves should be pre-cleaned and cut into disks. When you begin placing the mushrooms into the jar, add raw garlic between the mushrooms. Let the mushrooms and garlic season in the brine for a few weeks before you open the jars.
