How To Clean Mushrooms Properly

Knowing How to clean mushrooms properly is crucial to cooking success. Like with most things in cooking, it’s easy… when you know how.

Mushrooms are one of my absolute favourite vegetables. The earthy, umami flavour that they add to dishes; and the texture of a well cooked mushroom can’t compare to anything else.

But we all know that mushrooms come dirty. Like really dirty. After all they are grown in… ermmm… dirt. So we need to make sure that we get ’em clean. But are you doing it right?

I know when you have 2+ cups of mushrooms, it seems like the simple thing to dunk them in a bowl of water, or under a running tap. But, that would absolutely ruin any mushroom. If you spent some cash on some farmers market style wild mushrooms they would turn to absolute mush.

You see, mushrooms are mostly water. They are also extremely porous and take on water like a sponge.

The way you clean mushrooms properly is with a damp paper towel and just wiping them clean. You can can also use a soft nail brush or a tooth brush to clean wild mushrooms. Often wild ones are more delicate than hearty ones like chestnut or portobello mushrooms.

Cooking Mushrooms Properly is the next step in your mushroom journey. Because mushrooms are mostly water, they need to be cooked on a very high heat. Let me explain.

When you put mushrooms into a cold pan, as the temperature starts to increase, the mushrooms start to steam in their own water. But when you have the heat up high, the mushrooms start to sear as soon as they hit the pan. The high heat also means that they water from the mushrooms evaporates immediately and you get golden brown mushrooms, while still retaining texture.

Once you get your mushrooms home from the market it’s a great idea to clean them right away and store them in the fridge in a paper bag. If you buy your mushrooms in plastic containers, it’s really important to store them in paper. The plastic makes the mushrooms go really slimy and ruin them really quickly.

I store my mushrooms unwrapped in a bowl in the fridge ready to eat or use in any recipe that I need. I’d love to know some of your favourite mushroom recipes. Comment below and share those recipes.