Mushrooms: benefits and biochemical composition. Where is it better to collect them and how to process them so as not to harm health?
With the onset of autumn, a huge number of mushroom pickers rush into the forest. Despite the fact that every season some of the “forest meat” lovers end up in the hospital with signs of intoxication, interest in “silent hunting” does not weaken.
There are types of mushrooms that cause a lot of controversy. For example, pig mushrooms, the benefits of which are that they contain a number of useful substances, but at the same time they can harm health.
The appearance of pigs and "mushroom" places
It can be found in deciduous and coniferous forests, in meadows or near water bodies. Often these mushrooms grow under birches and oaks, while in one instance they practically do not occur, they grow, as a rule, in “families”.
The mushroom season starts in mid-July and ends in late October or early November. Autumn is considered especially "fruitful" with frequent and heavy rains, since mushrooms need not only heat, but also a sufficient amount of moisture.
You can distinguish this variety of mushrooms by the following features:
Pale green or grayish-brown caps;
Fleshy and thick hat with a diameter of 10 to 20 cm with everted wavy edges;
Velvety or rough surface (in some cases smooth);
Light yellow or brown flesh, quickly darkening when cut;
Small legs up to 10 cm high and up to 5 cm in diameter, which can be either smooth or rough.
It is noteworthy that at an early age mushroom caps are usually convex, and then they gradually level off, after which they acquire a funnel shape.
The composition and nutritional value of pigs
Swine mushrooms benefit the body due to their unique biochemical composition.
They are rich in the following substances:
Vitamins of groups A, B and C;
. iodine;
. fluorine;
. phosphorus;
. iron;
. potassium;
. sodium;
. magnesium;
. molybdenum;
. cobalt;
. calcium;
. phosphorus;
. zinc;
. chromium;
. various amino acids.
The nutritional value of this mushroom is low. Carbohydrates and fats are contained in pigs in a minimal amount, but at the same time they are able to enrich the human body with high-quality protein.
However, other types of “forest meat” that are less questionable in terms of safety also have similar properties.
Swine mushrooms: what are their benefits for the body
Due to the high content of useful trace elements, pig mushrooms have a positive effect on various organs and systems. Their use activates the following positive processes:
Normalization of lipid metabolism and cholesterol levels;
Stimulation of vital processes in the body;
Blocking fat cells;
Strengthening the body's ability to resist the effects of microbes, viruses and infections;
Increasing the strength of bones and muscles;
Soft cleansing of the body and activation of digestion;
Improving the work of the heart, blood vessels and central nervous system;
Restoration of hormonal levels;
Elimination of headaches and insomnia;
Increasing efficiency and strengthening the body's defenses.
In addition, pigs have a diuretic and laxative effect, which contributes to weight loss, and due to the content of atrotomentin, their regular use minimizes the risk of cancer.
Swine mushrooms: harm and contraindications
According to the results of numerous studies conducted by Soviet scientists, pigs in 1984 were excluded from the list of conditionally edible mushrooms. From that time to the present, they are classified as poisonous and unfit for consumption.
(reklama) This decision is due to the fact that toxic substances were found in the composition of pigs, which are not subject to destruction even with prolonged heat treatment, and accumulating in the human body, can cause various health disorders. And also this mushroom has the ability to produce muscarine, a poisonous substance that has a similar composition to the toxin contained in the fly agaric.
In addition, pigs, like many mushrooms, are able to absorb harmful substances from the soil and the environment. For example, even a harmless honey agaric can become poisonous if it is plucked near a highway or a chemical waste dump.
Even with the occasional use of pigs, harmful substances can cause the following negative manifestations in the body:
Increased formation of antibodies and changes in blood composition;
. destruction of red blood cells and autoimmune reactions of the body;
. acute renal failure with a possible fatal outcome.
However, despite the warnings and reliable information that pig mushrooms can harm the body and even lead to death, many lovers of "forest meat" do not want to give up their use and continue this unsafe game of "Russian roulette".
There are a number of cases when eating pigs is guaranteed to lead to negative consequences. These include:
Children's age up to 12 years;
. pancreatitis;
. diseases of the pancreas;
. pathology of the gastrointestinal tract.
Even a healthy person can feel seriously ill as a result of excessive consumption of pigs. There is a classic picture of poisoning, and in this condition urgent medical attention is required, otherwise it threatens death.
How to recognize pig poisoning
The danger of pigs lies in the fact that the symptoms of intoxication may not appear immediately after the mushrooms have been eaten, but after a while. Delay threatens with serious danger up to a lethal outcome.
Signs by which poisoning can be recognized include:
Nausea and vomiting;
. diarrhea and abdominal pain;
. frequent heartbeat;
. profuse sweating and increased salivation;
. paleness or yellowing of the skin;
. signs of a violation in the work of the respiratory system;
. manifestation of renal failure;
. delusions and hallucinations.
It is important to know that there is no antidote for the effects of toxic substances contained in pigs. The longer a person puts off calling an ambulance, the less chance of survival he has.
How to reduce the risk of pig poisoning
The best way to avoid poisoning with pigs is to stop eating them. However, not every mushroom picker is ready to give up this delicious dish.
To reduce the risk of health problems, you will need to follow these recommendations:
2. Sow and clean pigs immediately after they have been collected.
3. After cleaning, place the mushrooms in water for 24 hours, after dissolving salt and citric acid in it. During the day, change the liquid in which the pigs are soaked 2-3 times. This measure will help remove harmful substances and salts of heavy metals from the product.
4. After soaking, thoroughly rinse the mushroom mass and cook in salt water for 5 minutes.
5. Replace the water, pour a few tablespoons of salt into it and boil the mushrooms for half an hour.
6. Repeat the procedure for changing the liquid and boil the pork again for at least 30 minutes.
7. Throw the mass in a colander and cool naturally. After such processing, you can start cooking any dish of mushrooms.
Compliance with these measures does not guarantee that pigs will become absolutely safe, but only reduce the risk of poisoning. Therefore, it is important to be aware of the possible danger, and not to abuse this fragrant and tasty product.
Details
Mushroom soups always turn out fragrant, satisfying and very tasty. Mushroom soups can be eaten even by those who are on a diet or fasting. Such a soup can be prepared from any mushrooms, including pigs. True, this mushroom is conditionally edible, because it is characterized by the ability to accumulate toxins. Some believe that this mushroom is poisonous and should not be consumed. But if the pigs are cooked correctly, then nothing terrible will happen.
But from these mushrooms you can cook a very tasty soup.
Mushroom pig soup with rice
Required Ingredients:
- pig mushrooms - 800 gr.;
- potatoes - 5 pcs.;
- carrot - 1 pc.;
- onions - 2 pcs.;
- rice - 100-150 gr.;
- vegetable oil;
- Bay leaf;
- meat broth;
- salt and pepper - to taste.
Cooking process:
Wash the pigs well. You can soak the mushrooms for a couple of hours in cold water. Then drain the water. Transfer the washed mushrooms to a bowl. Fill with cold water and send to the fire. When it boils, let it boil for five minutes and drain the water.
Rinse the mushrooms with clean water. Drain again and fill with clean water. Send the mushrooms back to the fire. Boil the mushrooms for about 30 minutes. You can cook twice for 15 minutes, each time changing the water.
Peel the potatoes, cut into cubes and place in a bowl. Add the cooled mushrooms, cut into medium-sized pieces, to the potatoes.
Pour everything with meat broth. If there was no ready-made meat broth in the house, then put and boil some bone. Meat from the bone can be stripped and sent to the soup, cut into small pieces.
While the soup is cooking on the stove, peel the onions and carrots. Slice carrots. Chop the peeled onion into half rings.
Heat a frying pan with vegetable oil and put onions and carrots. Saute vegetables until browned.
Put the fried vegetables into the soup. After five minutes, put the washed rice into the soup. The amount of rice depends on how thick you want the soup to be.
Boil the soup until the potatoes and rice are cooked. Don't forget to salt the soup and add pepper and bay leaf.
Serve the finished soup hot, sprinkled with herbs, and preferably with sour cream. If there is no meat broth, the soup can be prepared with water, it will just be less high-calorie.
Mushroom pig soup with vegetables
Required Ingredients:
- carrot - 2 pcs.;
- mushrooms - 400 gr.;
- vegetable oil;
- potatoes - 3 pcs.;
- onion - 1 pc.;
- flour - 1 tbsp;
- Bay leaf;
- salt and pepper - to taste;
- greenery.
Cooking process:
Boil well-washed pigs in several waters. After the first boil, let the mushrooms boil for 5 minutes, and then drain the water and fill it with clean water.
For the second time, the water also needs to be changed after 20-30 minutes of boiling. Pour clean water over the pigs for the third time. While the mushrooms boil and cook, peel the potatoes and cut them into strips. Pour off about half a glass of mushroom broth.
Send potatoes to the pan with mushrooms. Boil the soup for about 7 minutes. Meanwhile, peel the carrots and onions.
Grate the carrots, and finely chop the onion. Fry the vegetables in a pan with vegetable oil until the onion is translucent.
Then add flour to the pan and continue to fry the vegetables, stirring constantly. Pour the mushroom broth, which has been set aside, to the vegetables. Warm the contents of the pan for a couple of minutes, and then turn off the heat.
Put the prepared sauce into the pot with the soup. Simmer the soup for about 10 more minutes. Salt the soup and add spices to it, that is, pepper and bay leaf.
When the soup is cooked, turn off the heat and let the soup brew for 10-15 minutes. Then serve on the table, sprinkled with herbs on top.
The pig mushroom got its name due to its peculiarity to grow in almost all areas unsuitable for habitation, such as ant and dung heaps, swamps, sewers, snags, cesspools, ravines, rotten stumps, deadwood and anywhere. That is why this mushroom is so popular with a large harvest.
What do pigs look like
Mushrooms have two varieties: "thick" and "thin" pigs, which differ slightly in color and shape. Pigs are generally considered to be poisonous and toxic mushrooms due to the fact that they provoke autoimmune effects in the human body, and also contain radioactive substances that do not break down when boiled. Nevertheless, many people admit a significant reduction in tumors, a positive effect on the body that pig mushrooms have. Their description is given below.
Pig "fat"
Such a mushroom is also popularly called a fat woman. Previous generations ate it salted. The "fat" pig likes to live on the stumps of coniferous trees, or on the roots. It appears at the beginning of the summer season and grows until the first snow falls. Pig mushroom has the following description:
To date, the pig mushroom "fat" is considered poisonous. Its flesh, even when salted, is harsh and bitter. Such pigs were harvested and eaten only in famine years.
Mushroom pig "thin"
In Russia and Ukraine, such a pig has always been considered a bad mushroom. People collected it only during the period of crop failure of others. Pig (mushroom) grows near poplars, firs and birches. The pig "thin" is also called the barn or pig's ear. The mushroom has the following description:
Scientists have found that during heat treatment, toxic substances do not evaporate at all. It is believed that the "thin" pig accumulates radioactive elements.
Pig mushrooms: benefits and harms
There are people who have been collecting pigs for years and eating them. With a strong desire, you can always find different recipes for preparing these dangerous mushrooms. Usually the most popular processing method is marinating pre-cooked pigs. For pickling, it is ideal to prepare salting yourself, reporting there, in addition to sugar and salt, black peppercorns, cinnamon, mustard powder and cloves. Then boiled mushrooms are poured with ready-made marinade and vinegar solution is added at the end.
The pork mushroom is also salted with a hot processing method, where all this is complemented by spices: horseradish, bay leaf, dill and allspice.
How dangerous is this fungus?
This forest dweller was out of doubt for a long period and was considered a relatively edible mushroom of the 4th degree. But recently, the assumption of the threat of pigs has been massively spread, and they have begun to be attributed to toxic species.
And yet, how to cook pigs (mushrooms) without consequences for life? You can, if certain conditions are met. The pork is not able to be preserved for a long time, it needs a quick heat treatment, as it can deteriorate. With an imperceptible slowdown in processing, the fungus rots. Signs of intoxication are expressed gradually, because the poison accumulates in the human body after some time. This is the main insidiousness of such a mushroom.
What could be the consequences
Old grown pigs can accumulate toxic substances. Scientists have also found that the pig mushroom is capable of producing muscarine, a toxic substance similar in such signs to the red fly agaric. Muscarine itself does not decompose when heated and can be collected in pigs in quantities dangerous to humans.
As a result of a laboratory study of the chemical composition of mushrooms, substances were found in them that can provoke blood diseases in humans. In addition, the analyzes revealed that the pig is more adapted than other mushrooms to absorb and gain accumulation of heavy metals (lead, cadmium, mercury) contained in industrial waste, as well as in car exhaust gases. This is what a seemingly harmless pig mushroom can look like. The photo is shown below.
Among other things, scientists have proven that eating pigs can cause a rare type of allergy, in which an excessive release of immune bodies in the human body occurs. Immunoglobulin type G is produced in the blood. As a result, anaphylactic shock can begin, sometimes leading to a fatal outcome. And now it makes sense to think about whether it is worth eating pork mushrooms? The benefits and harms of them can be completely versatile.
Symptoms of intoxication
Signs of pig poisoning are expressed in different ways. Some complain of dizziness and pain in the abdomen, while others stop working with the kidneys and liver, go numb limbs and disrupted the coherence of speech. Fatal intoxications with pigs (mushrooms) have already been recorded.
Pig mushroom: how to cook
Before using this forest dweller in the preparation of various dishes, you need to put it in cold water for 2-3 hours, then cook for 30 minutes and drain the finished broth. After that, the mushrooms are fried, salted and marinated. As a rule, they are not added to soups; they are also unsuitable for drying.
However, not every housewife knows how to cook pigs (mushrooms) for marinade and salting. It is believed that the best container for brining is a wooden barrel. But not every modern kitchen can find it, so it would be more correct to take any ceramic vessel. Pre-washed and cooked pigs must be laid out in layers, sprinkling them with ordinary salt. For flavor, you can put some garlic cloves, dill stalks and allspice in the mushrooms. Further, the pigs are covered with a clean rag or gauze, a heavy object is placed on top and hidden in a cool place for brining. In this way, it is good to harvest pork mushrooms for the winter.
You can use salted mushrooms only after 40 days. Experienced chefs advise storing pigs at a temperature of at least 5 degrees, as there is a chance that the mushrooms will freeze and their taste will noticeably deteriorate. If the temperature is higher then the brine may turn sour and the pigs will need to be thrown out. At the time of salting, it is also important to add boiled water from time to time, because the brine tends to evaporate, and again the pig (mushroom) can suffer from this. How to prepare it for salting? Now many already know.
Quick answer: These are poisonous mushrooms and should not be eaten.
Svinushki are mushrooms quite common on the territory of our country, which until the beginning of the 80s of the last century were considered conditionally edible. Today they are considered poisonous.
Pigs are considered large mushrooms, since the hat can reach a diameter of 20 centimeters, but in nature such specimens are rare. The cap is slightly convex, rarely funnel-shaped. The color of a young mushroom is olive-brown, an adult one is from gray to rusty-brown. If you press on the surface, it immediately begins to darken. The surface is dry, in older pigs it is smoother, after rain it becomes sticky and begins to shine. As for the pulp, it is dense and soft, then it becomes loose. When it rains, it is often wormy, has no special taste or smell.
Swine grow in forests of various types, prefer wet and shady places. They grow mainly in groups, single ones are slightly less common. You can find them from June to October.
Now back to toxicity. The first mention of the pig as a poisonous plant appeared during the Second World War, when one of the German mycologists, after eating mushrooms, began to feel ill, he began to feel nausea, vomiting, fever, and diarrhea. A couple of weeks later, he died of kidney failure. Therefore, today the plant is definitely considered poisonous, but the symptoms do not appear immediately. Moreover, in many cases they do not make themselves felt at all. Toxicity is due to the lectins (types of toxins) contained here, which are not destroyed even after repeated heat treatment.
Pigs can cause severe allergic reactions with specific antigens. In the worst case, this leads to kidney failure, which we have already mentioned above. Children and pregnant women are most sensitive to toxins, so they definitely cannot use these mushrooms.
According to another opinion, this plant has such a bad property as the accumulation of copper and cesium isotopes, which, after eating mushrooms, enter the human body.
The first symptoms of poisoning: nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea. After that, symptoms of intravascular hemolysis appear, such as the appearance of hemoglobin in the urine, jaundice ... Hemolysis, unfortunately, can cause complications, including acute respiratory failure or shock. But, alas, there is no antidote. Treatment includes monitoring blood pressure, blood, kidney function, and correcting abnormalities. Plasmapheresis is used to remove antibodies from the blood.
Now tell me, do you still want to cook pigs? Yes? Well, look, we warned you.
1. We take mushrooms, wash them thoroughly.
2. We start cooking mushrooms. For the first time, boil them for no more than 10 minutes, after which we drain the resulting broth.
3. The second time we cook the pigs for at least half an hour, after which we drain all the liquid.
4. Now we can use mushrooms for first or second courses, as well as for salads. But we remind you that toxins are not destroyed even after repeated processing! Don't forget it!
5. Salt and spices can be added later.
By the way, with regard to toxins, experts recommend using a fat pig (we told you about a thin one), it is considered less toxic and safer to eat, but it is still very dangerous for health. We advise you to stop eating this mushroom in order to avoid poisoning and subsequent problems.
Fried pigs in sour cream
Very tasty, alluring, satisfying forest mushrooms. Easy to prepare.
Compound: on a frying pan
Pig mushrooms - a big bunch;
Onion - 1 large head;
Sour cream - 2-3 tablespoons;
Garlic - 2 cloves, greens (optional);
Vegetable oil for frying
How to cook pigs in sour cream
- sort mushrooms, wash, cut into large pieces. Boil in salted water for 10 minutes. Then - drain the water, rinse the mushrooms and boil again in the same way (you can even twice - boil 2 or 3 times in total). Throw the boiled pigs in a colander, let the water drain;
- heat the oil in a frying pan (1 cm layer), fry in it (over low heat) finely chopped onion until softened and a light golden color appears. Add mushrooms and saute together for 20 minutes. Salt;
- add sour cream and garlic to the mushrooms (if you want). Simmer together over low heat for another 5 minutes. Let the ready pigs brew and calm down for 10-15 minutes;
- serve warm or chilled, you can decorate with herbs.
A portion of very tasty, satisfying mushrooms!
Features of cooking pigs with sour cream and taste
Pigs are very tasty mushrooms with dense, fleshy flesh. They are very good fried, canned (recipe) and stewed (with meat or potatoes).
How to prepare pigs for cooking
With any method of further preparation, they must be boiled several times (2-3 times) in order to protect themselves from possible poisons and toxins that can accumulate in mushrooms, especially in the heat.
This is what the pigs that grow in the grass in the garden look like
This is what fresh mushrooms look like - pigs
How to make sure that pigs do not darken
When exposed to air, pigs quickly darken, if you want to avoid this, you can throw peeled and chopped mushrooms into slightly acidified water (lemon juice or table vinegar).
