mushrooms (was Re: [Sca-cooks] Playing around in the kitchen.)

[Pixel, Goddess and Queen]

On Wed, 4 Sep 2002, Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:

> Also sprach Pixel, Goddess and Queen:
> >Around here they've been marketing the criminis as "baby bellas" which is
> >terribly chi-chi and trendy. Pfeh. The only actual advance in mushroom
> >sales and marketing that I can see is that they've started selling the
> >pre-sliced white mushrooms *washed*, which is fine with me.
>
> Well, they're cleaned somehow, but I'm really not sure how. Getting
> mushrooms wet before use is generally considered a no-no. When I
> worked for Mark May, I wasn't even allowed to clean them too
> carefully. His comment: "Hey, man. They're supposed to taste like the
> forest. If you wash the forest off them, what's the point?" (This was
> in connection with chanterelles or morels, I forget which.)
>
> Adamantius, who either keeps a coupla cans (gasp!) of mushrooms on
> hand, or goes to the farmer's market for a wooden basket/pail of
> them...

These are the farmed white mushrooms, which are grown in some variety of
growth medium which is probably closely related to cow manure. And you
know, I'm not really keen on eating cow manure.

They have the look of having been actually washed. I will buy them if I am
really pressed for time, otherwise I don't bother with the extra expense.
My biggest complaint with them before was that it's very hard to even
brush off mushrooms that are already sliced.

I always understood that you don't wash mushrooms because they absorb
water, unless you're going to be cooking them in something liquid like
soup or stew. Then there's my mother, who always insisted that you must
wash the mushrooms.

Margaret, who also keeps a couple of cans of mushrooms on hand because the
Mpls farmer's market is downtown and thus pretty much inaccessible