Effects of Different Drying Methods on the Structure and Quality of Pleurotus eryngii

In order to explore the effects of different drying methods on the microstructure and quality of dried products of Pleurotus eryngii, five methods were selected to dry the dried products: Hot air drying, microwave vacuum drying, intermittent microwave vacuum drying, hot air-microwave combined drying and vacuum freeze-drying , and the micromorphology, shrinkage rate, rehydration ratio, color, amino acid content, polysaccharide content and sensory evaluation of dry products were used as evaluation indexes. The results showed that vacuum freeze-drying was the best to maintain the integrity of tissue structure, with the smallest shrinkage rate (30.2%), the largest rehydration ratio (3.03), and the best recovery effect, the highest polysaccharide content (13%). The amino acid (560.94 mg/100 g) and sensory evaluation (9.4 points) of hot air-microwave combined drying were the highest, and the shrinkage rate (55.43%), rehydration ratio (1.83), color (76.29) and polysaccharide (11.8%) were the second highest after vacuum freeze-drying. The content of polysaccharide in hot air drying was the lowest (5.4%), and the sensory evaluation was the lowest (4.4 points). Comprehensive appearance, nutritional composition and sensory evaluation, hot air-microwave combined drying was a drying method most suitable for edible fungi with mycelium constitutes tissue and large water content such as P. eryngii.