So, I was just washing the closed cup mushrooms....

[Klaw]

... when I thought about how I don't like the stalks and can't bring myself to use them.

I always pop them out and just use the cups. I'm not very adventurous with mushrooms anyway.

Am I a freak?

And discuss....

[scanner]

yep, I never wash mine, only peel my father who is a chef taught me that, about the only thing he did teach me though.

[Pruners]

Message withdrawn

[objectivity]

I dunno about freak exactly... but I do like them complete with stalks and mud.

Not with wild mushrooms though - they can be a bit, um, maggoty.

[MaureenMLove]

I eat the whole thing personally, but I don't think it makes you a freak particularly.

Agree with scanner though, never wash mushrooms. They take up all the water and ruin the flavour. You should just wipe off any dirt with a bit of kitchen roll.

[OverMyDeadBody]

Technically you are meant to rub the mushrooms with a cloth, or peel them, not wash them, although they don't really even need this as they are grown in such sterile environments, so I'd label you a freak for that alone! (only joking of course)

Seems crazy to waste the stalks though, you paid for that you know and that's about half the weight of each mushroom!

[CapnTaLcY]

I can't peel mine...they end up all...
in bits

I do wash in case of crawlies tucked inside

The stalks are nice, what's wrong with the stalks?

[OverMyDeadBody]

Capn you're not trying to peel them with a peeler are you?

Not likely to be any bugs or creepy crawlies in bog standard supermarket mushrooms, they are growm indoors with little risk of any bugs. Water ruins mushrooms.

[Ladytophamhatt]

I just flick the mud off with teh knife I'm about to chop them with.

Isn't the soil the mushrooms grow in streile or something?
I read that on here once I think.

No idea how you get sterile mud though.....

[MaureenMLove]

Good point OMDB! Think how many more meals you could get out of a punnet of shrooms, if you didn't throw half of it away! In these uncertain times, I think its time to wake up and taste the stalks!

[OverMyDeadBody]

Yes Lady, sterile growing stuff. It's not really mud as we know it...

[CapnTaLcY]

Lol.. i may be a useful fool in the kitchen...but i'm not that useless

Closed cup shrooms go all 'snappy' when i peel them...then there's the bits under my fingernails......and there could be crawlies migrating from the caulis?

[Ladytophamhatt]

When I put mushroom in bolognese I use buttons ones, chopping them but then leave one whole.

Its like hunting the h'penny in the christmas pud

[iBundle]

freak

[OverMyDeadBody]

lol at crawlies migrating from the caulis! Yes, I suppose that is a possibility!

The medium they are grown in is indeed either sterilised or pasteurised, I just looked it up!

[RubberDuck]

Heh, I was always taught in home ec NOT to peel them as you lose the goodness in the skin, or something. I remember one girl being humiliated for peeling her shrooms and remember her sobbing "b.b.but that's what my m.m.mother always does".

So which is right?

[RubberDuck]

(oh, and always use the stalks)

[itati]

Don't wash mushrooms!
Makes them yukky. Get this

[RubberDuck]

Ah ha ... according to this:

"Never peel cultivated mushrooms or remove their stalks. The whole mushroom is edible and the skin contains nutrients and flavour. The mushroom is a single structure which is damaged if the stalk is pulled out. If you like stuffed mushrooms, trim the stalk back slightly, then mould the stuffing around the stalk, using it as a firm support."

So there you go, don't peel, don't remove the stalk. YOU'RE DAMAGING THE POOR LITTLE THINGS YOU MUSHROOM MURDERER!

[itati]

I chop off a bit of the end of the stalk and leave whole.

[OverMyDeadBody]

I knew it!

Lol at mushroom murderer

[wheresthehamster]

Ooooooooh! I love the stalks!

Favourite late night snack - fried mushrooms on toast. I eat all the caps first and leave the stalks to savour with the soggy toast. Heaven!

[Klaw]

at so many posts already!!

well, the first step to recovery is to admit...

right, will try to leave the stalks and to just rinse rather than wash.

I s'pose I wash and take off any skin that comes away cos I'm so wary of pesticides. Do they not use pesticides in mushroom farming?

[Klaw]

oh feck, a quick google found this. So if I've not to wash mushrooms I'll have to buy organic. I try to buy as much orgnic as I can but in this day and age of rising costs I have to look after the purse strings too....

oh what's a girl to do?!!!

[oggsfrog]

Noooo don't rinse either. Just brush of any bits with your fingers or a brush (dry)

[OverMyDeadBody]

Klaw the MRL for pesticides is something like one hundredth of the amount that would cause any harm to humans, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.