Kiszone grzyby
Fermenting mushrooms is rather a forgotten art of preserving food. Nowadays, most Poles who collect them themselves choose to dry or freeze them. In the mountainous, southeastern corner of Poland, home to the ethnic minority of Lemkos, this tradition survived.
This preserves that has helped in the past the survival of the ethnic minority of Lemkos, in the mountains of Poland, on the border with Ukraine and Slovakia, where agriculture is very difficult.
Agriculture has always been a rough way to make a living there, and so people tended to supplement their diet with wild plants and mushrooms. The two popular species to be fermented are rydz (Lactarius deliciosus) and opieńka (Armillaria mellea). Sometimes, also maślak (Suillus luteus), borowik (Boletus edulis), podgrzybek (Xerocomus), and gąska (Tricholoma flavovirens) are used. These species are preserved rather separately. In most cases, only caps are used.
Mushrooms are boiled or at least covered with boiling water, and left to cool down. After that, they are put into a clay or glass jar in layers, each layer salted. Often other spices like garlic, onion, bay leaf, Jamaican pepper or black pepper are added too. A wooden or ceramic plate with a stone on it keeps the mushrooms under the brine, so that they don’t mold. In the first days, the turbid brine on the top should be skimmed with a spoon and some fresh brine added each time. Once the mushrooms are fermented, the jar is stored in some cool place.
Such mushrooms can be used both as an antipasto and as equivalents to fresh or dried ones. Before consumption they are soaked in water or milk to lose salt.
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