Introduction of shiitake mushroom
Shiitake is the second largest mushroom in the world that originated in China. It’s not only a popular edible fungus and its medicinal function has attracted more and more attention. The shiitake is fleshy and tender, its taste is delicious and nutritious with high edible value. It is also a rare ideal health food because it’s rich in some substance that is good for the human body.
Why the mushrooms should be dried?
The cultivation and production of shiitake can bring enormous economic and social benefits that have a broad market prospect. And the dried shiitake have a high nutritious value to some degree because some substances in the shiitake can be converted into other substances like vitamins that are beneficial to the human body under the action of sunlight. The dried shiitake can not only retain the delicious flavor completely but also have a longer storage time. If we can make a perfect drying effect without reducing the delicate taste, it will be easier to gain the favor of customers and further improve the economic benefits.
Why dry shiitake by our heat pump dryer؟
The drying process of shiitake plays a decisive role in the shape, luster and fragrance of shiitake. However, the traditional drying technology can not keep up with the demand, resulting in dried shiitake products have poor coloring, light fragrance, poor appearance and other problems that affecting the product value seriously. On the contrary, if the shiitake can be dried well, the value of goods will also increase.
The traditional drying processes include natural dying by the sun, kiln fire backing, coal-fired boiler and electric oven, etc. Why abandon the traditional ways? Because all of them will have a bad impact on the raw material, especially some heat-sensitive materials. They also have some problems like low thermal energy conversion, low degree of automation, heavy pollution.
However, our heat pump dryer can solve these problems effectively. Our heat pump dryer uses only a small amount of electricity to absorb a lot of heat in the air to dry the shiitake. Not only the energy consumption is small, the energy conversion rate is high, the quality of drying is also high. The whole process is completely pollution-free and the dryer adopted an automatic temperature control device that can realize 24 hours continuous drying. Based on the above advantages, our heat pump dryer has won the support and trust of the majority of consumers.
How to dry shiitake mushrooms with heat pump dryers؟
The harvested fresh shiitake should be sorted out in time and transferred into the oven within 3 hours and 4 hours. Arrange them evenly and neatly according to the size of the shiitake, whether opening the umbrella. Putting the large, wet, thick mushrooms in the middle of the sieve, small mushroom and thin mushroom in the upper layer, poor mushroom and mushroom into the bottom layer.
The whole drying process is divided into four stages:
- Preparation drying stage: That is the mushroom just into the box crude dehydration stage, keeping the temperature at 30-50℃ to reduce the moisture to 75%. The shiitake can start at 40℃, crude dehydration time should be 3 to 4 hours. During this period, because of the high humidity of mushrooms, the temperature should higher than 35℃, And the air inlet and outlet should open largely to get the moisture out as soon as possible. The temperature should rise 1-2℃ per hour evenly.
- Drying stage: The moisture of the shiitake continues to evaporate and gradually enters the hardening state. The shape tends to be fixed and the drying degree is about 80%. The temperature rises slowly and evenly from 50℃ to 55℃ within 8-10 hours. This stage should turn down the air inlet and outlet.
- Shape setting stage: The evaporation rate of shiitake water slows down, the mushroom body begins to harden. The temperature stays at 55℃ and it takes 3-4 hours.
- Completion phase: The temperature in the oven rises from 55℃ to 60℃, until the humidity inside the shiitake is the same as the surface humidity, the water content is 11%-13%, the color is smooth and the drying is finished.
Attentions in the drying process of shiitake
1 Pick up the shiitake which are about half ripe and not watered for a day.
2 The temperature in the heat pump dryer shall be lower at first and then raise it gradually.
3 The drying process should be completed at one time, and the temperature should not be stopped at will or changed dramatically during the process.
