L.A. Times Test Kitchen tip: Cleaning mushrooms

So, what's the best way to clean a mushroom?

Give them a good dusting with a sponge, or use a small kitchen brush to remove dirt.

And although mushrooms are porous, they won't absorb as much moisture as was originally believed -- sometimes a little water is the best way to get dirt out of every nook and cranny. Give the mushrooms a quick dunk (or two) in a bowl of water or rinse them under cool, running water, then promptly pat dry or run through a salad spinner. But wait to wash the mushrooms until right before you use them so they stay fresh.

If you have any kitchen tips or questions you'd like me to explore, leave a comment below or shoot me an e-mail at noelle.carter@latimes.com.

-- Noelle Carter
Twitter/noellecarter

Photo credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Robert Seeds]

I've cleaned a lot of chanterelles lately. Their gills and other features hold a lot of dirt, and one little grain of dirt in my food is annoying.
I use my fingers to shred them into fairly thin pieces, going along their grain. Each new piece I use a brush to remove the dirt and then put the piece into water. When they are all shredded and dunked I agitate the water quite a bit, then take them out of the water. I then put them into another water bath and agitate again. Then I remove them and let them drain. That generally gets the grit out. They will absorb some water but you can remove that by adding them to a pan with some melted butter and cooking them slowly until the water cooks out.