Instruction for cleaning, storage and processing fresh mushrooms correctly

Mushrooms are one of the most popular foods and appear in many daily meals, especially for vegetarians. Mushrooms can be combined with many ingredients to create many different dishes, and are a rich source of protein. However, how to clean mushrooms, how to preserve mushrooms is still confusing for many people, each person has their own style. Many of you in the kitchen still have some misunderstandings about mushrooms.

With many years of cooking experience and through learning from people in the mushroom industry, we would like to share some of our knowledge. We believe this information will be useful to many people who love this type of food.

Illustration (Source: Internet)

How to clean mushrooms?

Many of you have a habit of washing mushrooms thoroughly because they think that they grow in a dark and humid environment and are not clean. However, in order for mushrooms to grow well, the growing environment must be clean. The texture of the fungus species itself is very porous and tends to absorb water very quickly. So if you wash or "clean" your mushrooms, your mushrooms will become soggy, which will both darken them and lose their soft texture and characteristic bounce. This will take away the natural flavors of the mushrooms.If you saute or grill mushrooms, you'll immediately find that washing the mushrooms is a disaster.Remember, no matter what happens, avoid letting the mushrooms soak in the water. 

(Source: Internet)

Worried about fungi being sprayed? Do you really think water can wash away chemicals? In fact, if the fungus has been sprayed, it will seep into the core of the mushroom, so washing the surface is useless. And water is not a miracle chemical cleaner. To ensure this, buy clean mushrooms from reputable manufacturers; The price will be higher but that's the way to handle the problem. The current technology of growing mushrooms with some types of fungi, people disinfect the mushroom growing substance, then transplant the embryos and plant them in a sterile room. With many common fungi, just spray with clean water and the fungus grows loudly.

Here's how to clean some mushrooms:

For Ganoderma lucidum mushroom, fresh shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, golden mushrooms, chicken thighs...: Use a knife to cut off the base of the sawdust, then use specialized paper Use for the kitchen or a clean, damp cloth to wipe the fungus is fine.

(Source: Internet)

• Straw mushrooms: Wash quickly with salt water but do not so(Source: Internet)

• Black termite fungus: Because the black termite fungus grows with sand, it should be cut clean, shaken off the sand, washed with water but do not soak

• For mushrooms purchased at food stores, supermarkets, and packaged and canned cleanly, the above method is appropriate. Mushrooms bought at the market and sold in stalls will get dusty, which can be washed under running water quickly or washed with diluted salt water. However, we still recommend that you buy clearly sourced mushrooms at supermarkets and grocers.

How to preserve mushrooms?

After cleaning, next is the preservation stage. To preserve longer, we take the mushrooms out of the container, then clean as above, then line and wrap with tissue. You should choose a tissue paper that is a little thick, then put it in the box and leave the lid open. If you use special containers to preserve fresh food, you can close the lid but open the valve. Then you put it in the fridge.

Or alternatively, you can wrap the mushrooms in tissue paper and put them in a paper bag or zip bag (paper bags are better than zip bags) - then leave them open without closing them. If you are lazy, you can use a toothpick to poke a few small holes in the plastic shell of the mushroom box and then put it in the refrigerator.

The above preservation method can be applied to most fresh mushrooms sold in supermarkets and can be preserved for up to a week or even more.

Illustration (Source: Internet)

For straw mushrooms, if you want to keep them for a long time, you should boil them with salt water. If you want to preserve mushrooms for longer, you can choose to soak mushrooms in salt water:

• After cleaning the mushrooms, boil them with water mixed with a little salt for about 10-15 minutes and then take them out. Let cool.
• Put the mushrooms in a jar, soak them in salt water with a concentration of 20-23%. During the soaking time, if the soaking water is cloudy, you should change the salt water to another. The shelf life of brine mushrooms can be up to several months.

Hopefully this article will help you gain more knowledge to create more delicious mushroom dishes.