For the past week or so, it feels like my life has been fungus 24-7. So it’s only appropriate that today’s post should be about mushrooms.
Perhaps I should explain. Towards the end of the summer, Jeff and I got some water in the basement after a particularly heavy rain. Neither one of us realized just how extensive the damage was—until the weekend before last. We were getting ready to have some new furniture delivered and decided we needed to reconfigure the basement. That was when we discovered that the bottoms of, oh, nearly ALL of the cardboard boxes we’d stored in our basement, filled with blankets and china and Christmas decorations, had gotten wet. Some then proceeded to sprout mold. Black, icky mold.
Um, gag.
Needless to say, we’ve been cleaning like demons ever since! We now have a supercharged dehumidifier, a powerful new sump pump—and an entire garage full of what used to be our much-loved stuff, mummified in Husky trash bags, ready to go out to the curb. In fact, pretty much anything that can’t be bleached has been trashed. (I’m more than a little freaked about anything that has the potential to make me sick.)
We’ve been meaning to pare down, mind you, but this was brutal.
Anyhow, given my zero-tolerance approach to anything resembling mold in the basement, as you may have guessed, I’m also a teensy bit obsessive when it comes to food safety. (Made all the more so by the super-intense emphasis on hygiene in my food service lab this semester!) And one of the things that’s always gotten me in the kitchen is that some recipes say to simply wipe the dirt off of fresh mushrooms. Now, I have an idea of the kind of stuff that mushrooms like to grow on, so you can bet your buttons (heh) that I wash and scrub mushrooms regardless.
I know, I know! If mushrooms are rinsed, they absorb water like sponges and end up flabby and squishy instead of firm and chewy. (So they say, anyway…)
But when I dump a container of fresh mushrooms into my colander, I can see the chunks of dirt clinging to them. So, as a world-class worrier, I dutifully rinse and scrub, figuring that eating waterlogged mushrooms is better than catching some sort of unholy bacteria from the rotting whatever-it-is that mushrooms grow on.
To wash or wipe?
Well, if a Q-and-A in The New York Times is to be believed, my wash n’ scrub method might be overkill. Apparently, according to Dr. Kathie Hodge of Cornell University, commercial mushrooms grow in a medium that is “basically compost.” What’s more, this compost is typically heat-treated to kill many of the organisms that would otherwise make themselves at home in it. Thus “mushroom dirt” doesn’t appear to pose much of a safety risk.
So while there’s an ick factor to dirty mushrooms from the grocery store, it seems likely that you don’t need to worry about getting your favorite fungus meticulously clean.
However, for those of you who will be scrubbing your mushrooms regardless (e.g. yours truly), there’s another myth that needs busting. As it turns out, mushrooms actually soak up very little water when washed. (At least so says The Kitchn.) Mushroom washers of the world, you are now officially vindicated. 🙂
So whether you wash or wipe, your mushrooms will probably turn out fine. Fingers crossed that I can say the same for my basement very soon—wish me luck!
You might also like:
I'm Lee, an RD thriving on a healthy plant based diet.
Yo, Squishy!
Sorry. (I couldn’t help myself 🙂 But seriously, I just want to let you know that you & yours are not alone in your subterranean aqua fest. We, too ([two?] hubby and I), have been down that sluice ourselves…THREE swimmy times: 1995 – Hurricane Opal, 2009-the Southeast’s 100-Year Storm, and a really fun (NOT!) weekend of moving in & out of our basement FOUR FREAKIN’ TIMES in 2010 due to sinkhole problems that were the result of 2009’s storm. So basically, we’ve been there, done that!
Should you need consoling, advice, whatever, feel free to contact me. And, in the interim, thanks for the “dirty shrooms” info. I like learning something new every day!
;D
–Mae, OTP in the ATL
Hi Mae, sorry to be so late in responding! I had some issues with my comment filter and it was hiding all my awesome reader comments even though I thought it wasn’t holding comments for moderation. So not only am I behind in responding to everyone, I thought no one loved me anymore. 😉 Whew!
Anyhow, WOW, I am so sorry you went through basement issues SO many times! Dealing with it is such a colossal pain in the you-know-what, not to mention losing lots of beloved stuff. And a sinkhole? I mean, come on! You and your hubby must have been at your wit’s end. You should get some kind of trophy for making it through all that! (At the very least a t-shirt… ;-)) Thanks for reaching out and sharing your story, though!
We’re finally getting things under control here, although now even though we have everything set, I’m totally paranoid about putting anything in the basement, as you can imagine.
Oh SO sorry about the basement, Lee! And you made me smile about whether to wash or not to wash mushrooms. I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum than you are, so good thing it’s all good! LOL
Hi Maria, honestly, you’re probably on the “right” end of the discussion–a little dirt is good for the immune system! I know this to be a fact, and yet I still can’t help but wash my mushrooms. Someday I’ll relax up a little bit! 😉
“Mushroom washers of the world, you are now officially vindicated.”
YES!!! I am totally grossed out by clogs of dirt on my mushrooms. Especially if I don’t buy organic. This makes me happy =) I love mushrooms and it’s always bothered me that I am water logging them, but yay!
Oh your poor basement! That just plain sucks. I have had this happen a few times while growing up in my parents house… it’s always sad to let go of things we weren’t quite ready to get rid of even if the intention of paring down was there. Hopefully it all gets cleaned up, I totally understand not wanting any mold in your house :/
Since I experienced that a few times growing up, I had the keen idea to always store everything in plastic tote bins. I’ve been saved by this actually too!
Good luck with the basement Lee
Totally with you on the mushrooms–we should start a mushroom scrub club!! Though that may not go viral as fast as I might otherwise hope…;-)
We’re definitely investing in plastic bins now, along with metal storage shelves so we can get everything off the floor. Although I’m hoping we don’t get any heavy rain until after finals, since hubby and I aren’t going to have a chance to get stuff truly set up until then…cross your finders for us!
Having lived in southeast Pennsylvania where half of America’s mushrooms are grown, I remember that the odor was far-reaching, potent, and AWFUL. I understand that part of the medium for growing mushrooms is horse and chicken manure. So yes, I wash my mushrooms very well!
Ha! Supposedly that manure is composted and sterilized, but you’re making a GREAT case for washing mushrooms! (I wash mine, too. 😉 )