eveenend
Assistant Cook
How do you keep mushrooms fresh longer than 3 days?
BreezyCooking said:If you're in a pinch & don't have any paper bags around, just make sure the plastic bag or container they're in is open to admit air. This keeps them good for me for at least a week.
Also - the long-held information that it's bad to wash mushrooms is nothing but an old wive's tale & has no validity whatsoever.
The infamous Alton Brown of Food Network fame did an entire show on debunking food myths, & one of them was all about cleaning mushrooms. He took identical weights of mushrooms & spent an eternity dry-brushing one group, soaking one group in a bowl of water, & washing the 3rd group under running water.
The only mushrooms that had gained any additional weight after cleaning were the ones that had been soaked - & even the the difference there was almost undetectable. He also said that a lot of people don't realize how much natural moisture mushrooms release when cooked - it has nothing to do with how they've been cleaned. This is how this washing myth apparently began.
He said you risk more displeasure by possibly biting down on a gritty piece of dirt from a dry-cleaned mushroom, than you do by cleaning them under running water. I agree with him, & feel much better eating my WASHED mushrooms - especially when I'm serving them raw.
I've ALWAYS (for the past 40 years) washed all mushrooms under cool running water & have NEVER had a problem with excessive moisture in any of my recipes.
Michael in FtW said:How tightly you close the top of the paper bag should not make any difference. What is important is that the paper bag is very porous and will allow moisture to escape.
RE: Alton Brown's "Myth Busters" episode ... yep - mushrooms are 90% water to begin with - so how much additional water could they soak up? In this episode ... dispelling the "searing meat retains juices" and the "washing mushrooms makes them waterlogged" myths were actually from Harold McGee's book The Curious Cook.
BreezyCooking said:If you're in a pinch & don't have any paper bags around, just make sure the plastic bag or container they're in is open to admit air. This keeps them good for me for at least a week.
Also - the long-held information that it's bad to wash mushrooms is nothing but an old wive's tale & has no validity whatsoever.
The infamous Alton Brown of Food Network fame did an entire show on debunking food myths, & one of them was all about cleaning mushrooms. He took identical weights of mushrooms & spent an eternity dry-brushing one group, soaking one group in a bowl of water, & washing the 3rd group under running water.
The only mushrooms that had gained any additional weight after cleaning were the ones that had been soaked - & even the the difference there was almost undetectable. He also said that a lot of people don't realize how much natural moisture mushrooms release when cooked - it has nothing to do with how they've been cleaned. This is how this washing myth apparently began.
He said you risk more displeasure by possibly biting down on a gritty piece of dirt from a dry-cleaned mushroom, than you do by cleaning them under running water. I agree with him, & feel much better eating my WASHED mushrooms - especially when I'm serving them raw.
I've ALWAYS (for the past 40 years) washed all mushrooms under cool running water & have NEVER had a problem with excessive moisture in any of my recipes.
Michael in FtW said:I just love this stuff ....
Alton Brown took his myth busting mushroom washing idea from Harold McGee's The Curious Cook (page 182). Harold took some (23) mushrooms that weighed a total of 252 grams, soaked them for 5 minutes, blotted them dry and threw them back on the scales. They weighed 258 grams, so had absorbed a whopping 1/2 Tablespoon (or about 90 drops) of water.
BUT - did they really absorb that much water? Since I don't have a good digital scale (on my wish list) I can't test my theory ... but using some basic logic I can assume the problem with the weight gain was at least (major) in part significantly influenced by the methodology.
If you just run water over the mushroom caps and brush it off (the only part of the mushroom that actually comes into contact with the growing medium other than the base of the stem) they will not, in theory, absorb that much water. Why? Like any other "plant" mushrooms draw dutrition from the roots - so some moisture will be absorbed up from the base of the stems - in only 5 minutes this might rehydrate some of the stem but little would get to the caps. OK - mushrooms lack the waxy cuticle of plants - which allows them to rapidly "expire" moisture and absorb it from the air. The point where I think the majority of the weight gain was achieved was in the gills under the caps. Due to their close radial proximity and arrangement - they are prime candidates to hold water by capillary action - easily 1-3 drops per mushroom when "soaked".
Based on theory (again, I don't have the digital scales needed to test and prove my theory) - a quick wash of the mushroom tops under running water will not cause significant water absorption - soaking would probably increase it.
So - let's turn our attention to cooking these little gems .... can anyone name one method of cooking that 2 additional drops of water would make a difference? Surely wouldn't make a difference in batter dipped and fried, wouldn't be a factor when added to a pot of stew ... and when you toss them into a skillet to saute - the first thing that happens is that the moisture cooks out ...