Why De-"Gill" Portabella Mushrooms?

[mollyanne]

I wanted to know how to marinate Portabella mushrooms and one recipe said we should take a spoon and scrape out the "gills" of the mushroom before marinating them. Why? Is it for health reasons? For appearance? For taste? I've been doing it ever since and I don't notice any difference in taste personally. Do you do it?

 

[Dawgluver]

I degill, I find the gills give them a kind of "muddy" taste. Otherwise, I don't think it hurts to eat them as is, just personal preference. I recall several TV chefs degilling.

 

[Aunt Bea]

For me it is for appearance.

The gills can make a light cream sauce or soup look dingy.

Sometimes I do sometimes I don't!

 

[CWS4322]

I remove the gills so that I can stuff the caps or use them instead of buns when making burgers. I add the gills to the bag in the freezer for when I'm making stock. I've never noticed a muddy flavor...I'll have to pay more attention next time I make a stock where I've added the gills.

 

[Kayelle]

If I'm using them whole, I never do anything about the black gills, MA. I like to stuff them whole, so I can't see the point as I don't believe the gills have any flavor. The only problem with them is they will color something else, like Bea mentioned. They probably look better de-gilled, if you serve them sliced however.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

They tend to color light sauces, I do for mushroom soup, that should look light and creamy.

 

[kadesma]

I added some to a pasta dish without de-gilling my pasta was a nasty dark color it tends to turn me off .
kades

 

[Andy M.]

It's a matter of use and preference. De-gill if you're going to stuff them or don't want to darken the color of your dish. If you're going to grill them, the whole mushroom collapses and flattens out so it won't make much of a difference.

 

[mollyanne]

Thank you everyone for your input...it's so interesting to read the various opinions. You've made a de-giller outta me

 

[Mad Cook]

I wanted to know how to marinate Portabella mushrooms and one recipe said we should take a spoon and scrape out the "gills" of the mushroom before marinating them. Why? Is it for health reasons? For appearance? For taste? I've been doing it ever since and I don't notice any difference in taste personally. Do you do it?

Perhaps the mushrooms were going to be stuffed and removing the gills makes more room? I've never come across this instruction.

It's funny, Portobello mushrooms are only grown-up buttons and it only takes a day or so longer to turn them into Portobellos yet they cost much more (where I live anyway). It's not so long ago the they were thought of as inferior and sold off cheap (and sometimes called "horse" mushrooms. Nothing to do with the animal, it's just an old word for
b-i-g.) It's surprising what a few cookery programmes on television can do.

 

[pacanis]

I remove the gills so that I can stuff the caps or use them instead of buns when making burgers. I add the gills to the bag in the freezer for when I'm making stock. I've never noticed a muddy flavor...I'll have to pay more attention next time I make a stock where I've added the gills.

You use marinated Portobello's for this?
It never occurred to me to marinate them before stuffing. I like the full flavor of the shroom to compliment the stuffing.

I gill 'em anytime I use them. The gills don't really add anything, so I scrape them out with a spoon.