Once and for all: should you wash mushrooms or not?
I’ll admit it straight away: I was also taught that mushrooms and champignons should not be washed. Give them a few swipes with that soft little brush that looks like a mushroom itself, and you’re done. Now, that’s certainly perfectly sufficient for most supermarket varieties, but what if you get your hands on a beautiful batch of special shrooms with a lovely authentic layer of dirt on them? Wash or don’t wash?
Wash mushrooms?
Because perhaps you, too (just like I was), have been indoctrinated by the anti-washing camp, which adamantly claims that once mushrooms and shrooms have been made wet, they turn into a kind of spongy water bomb, with the rinsing water practically squirting out of your ears when you eat them after frying. Rest assured; there are also highly respected voices that prove the opposite:
Professor Mushroom
A mushroom is already about eighty to ninety percent water by nature. So there isn’t much room for more. Reliable sources such as Kenji Lopez Alt of Serious Eats, food guru Harold McGee in his book Curious Cook, and the renowned magazine Cook’s Illustrated have conducted extensive research. Lopez Alt, for example, concluded that a mushroom absorbs only just under two percent of its own weight in water (and as you know, those things barely weigh anything) and that this translates into fifteen to thirty seconds of extra cooking time. They all concluded that you can perfectly well wash mushrooms under running water (and pat them dry afterwards if necessary), and even recommended doing so.
Into the pan quickly
The mushrooms should be washed shortly before cooking, not kept wet for a long time, as that makes them slimy. It’s also advisable to wash only whole mushrooms. One researcher said that if you notice they’re steaming until cooked in the pan instead of searing, it’s more likely because there are too many in the pan than because they’ve been washed.
So, I’ve fallen away from yet another belief. From now on, whenever I want to prepare some particularly muddy specimens, I’ll have no hesitation about giving them a quick shower first.
Read also:
- According to this chef, we’re cooking mushrooms completely wrong – and he shows us how to do it properly
- Why I shudder at mushrooms (that texture!)
- Recipe: Mushrooms in creamy sherry sauce
