SC - Recepies wanted

[BSmif76308@aol.com]

> I think this wiping-not-washing is mostly an American thing (although I may be
> wrong there); I´ve asked dozens of European chefs and none of them
> recommended wiping the mushrooms.

I think the difference may be the American tendency to prepare ingredients 
like mushrooms ahead of time, whereas most European cooks I have seen 
go right from the wash to the cutting board to the pot.

American cookbooks tend to go into methods of preparing foods and storing
them ahead of time so that they can be cooked quickly ( usually because the 
"American Housewife" is assumed to be busy bussing the kids, and working 
out of the home. this is the same impetus behind the american reliance on 
convenience foods, frozen parboiled vegetables, microwave dinners, etc.)
If I leave rinsed mushrooms in the frige for six hours, they get soggy, brown, 
and slimey. If I do not wash them, they'll keep for a couple of days before 
the condensation in the fridge causes the shrooms to go off.
This kind of thing becomes "habitual", then goes to "tradition", then finally 
to "unshakable law of nature".

 
Brandu