Never wash the mushrooms
This includes, for example, that the mushrooms should never be washed - after all, it is not without reason that they are called “mushrooms” in southern Germany and Austria. Like all mushrooms, mushrooms also contain a lot of water, which is why they shrink significantly during cooking. You are probably familiar with this effect: from a large bucket of freshly collected mushrooms, only a small portion for two people remains after roasting. If you wash mushrooms before preparation, they just soak up more water - and lose both their aroma and bite, they become "spongy" - soft and rather rubbery in their consistency.
also read
- Clean mushrooms properly - this is how it's done
- The season of mushrooms
- Mushrooms as a feed ingredient for dogs
Clean mushrooms properly - this is how it works
Instead, mushrooms (like all other mushrooms, by the way) should always be cleaned when dry. But how do you get them really clean if they are dirty? A grind between your teeth when consuming the mushroom pan is not necessarily desirable, after all, nobody wants to eat soil or substrate. There are various ways of doing this.
When should mushrooms be peeled?
Perhaps you too have learned or seen that mushrooms are peeled - that is, the fine skin is peeled off the hat. In fact, this is an effective means of cleaning up heavily soiled fungi, but it has the disadvantage that it also loses many nutrients that are located directly under or in the skin. Therefore, it is best not to pull off the skin or only if the mushrooms are actually very dirty or no longer look so fresh due to numerous bruises.
Brush with a brush
Instead, just grab a clean brush. Special brushes for cleaning mushrooms are available in stores, but a simple, thick bristle brush will do the same. First clean it thoroughly with water and then let it dry well. The brush hair should also not be coarse, but rather soft. Mushrooms are very sensitive and quickly get unattractive pressure points. Finally, remove the coarsest dirt with the brush.
Cleaning with kitchen paper
If there is still dirt, you can remove it with a kitchen towel by carefully rubbing it. Soft paper towels are best for this purpose, but you should use them dry and never moisten them. Incidentally, mushrooms should always be cleaned individually.
How to cut mushrooms
Once the mushrooms have been cleaned, you can cut them. The best way to do this is as follows:
- Remove any pressure marks with the kitchen knife
- Remove dried-on cut from the handle
- skin / peel only if it is very dirty
- Cut the mushrooms as desired with a sharp paring knife
- they can be cut into slices, halved or quartered
Tips
Use fresh mushrooms if possible. You can recognize this by the fact that the slats are still or largely closed.
