Mushrooms: To Wash or Not to Wash

The age-old question of whether or not to wash these earthy, delectable fungi rages on.

In one camp, there's the conviction that they're little sponges that will absorb water, resulting in bloated, less-flavourful mushrooms. These mushroom purists recommend using a soft brush to wipe them clean so as not to mar their perfect flavour.

Not so, says Team Wash 'Em Real Good. Food scientist Harold McGee investigated the controversy with his characteristic thoroughness in his column for the New York Times a few decades ago. He holds that the amount of water absorbed by a quick rinsing is negligible, and certainly won’t affect flavour.

Members of the mushroom-rinsing camp also point out the health benefits of a little water, in particular that the mushrooms will absorb less oil while cooking.

The Mushroom Council recommends using a soft brush to remove any visible dirt or rinse them quickly and pat them dry. Hmm, well that doesn’t really answer that question.

I suppose when it comes down to it, it’s just a matter of personal preference. But if you do choose to rinse, rest assured that you won’t be ruining your dinner -- McGee found in his experiment that the mushrooms soaked up only about a sixteenth of a tsp. of water each. Mushrooms are 80 to 90 percent water anyway, so what’s an extra sixteenth of a tsp.? The key is a quick rinse, not a soaking.

Personally, I like to peel my mushrooms. Some might object on that grounds that the outer layer is full of nutrients that will be lost using this process. And while that's true, it's a loss I'm willing to accept for a clean, manure-free mushroom. In fact, when cooking with portabella mushrooms, I go so far as to scrape off the gills, which tend to produce a bit of a mess anyway.

For portabellas, remove the stem, then scrape the gills with a spoon prior to peeling. Peel back from the underside up towards the top of the mushroom, section by section, using your hands (as opposed to a peeler).

But if the mushrooms are touch to peel, I’ll wipe them down with a damp paper towel.