How to Clean Wild Mushrooms
How to clean your mushrooms is a hotly debated but very important topic for all mushroom hunters. Some people claim a quick brushing is just fine, others prefer to cut the mushroom down to just the meat to allow for no chance for dirt, bugs or other debris to be on your mushroom. We approach it somewhere in the middle, but ultimately you decide what you want to put in your mouth. If you're having second thoughts about eating something, you probably shouldn't be eating it. In the below article we'll outline the five steps we take to clean our mushrooms. If there are some tips/tricks we haven't included, be sure to e-mail us at MushroomBlog.com@gmail.com.
As we always say, DO NOT CONSUME ANY MUSHROOMS UNLESS YOU ARE OKAY WITH THE RISKS OF MISIDENTIFICATION!! You can have just as much fun searching for and just taking pictures of mushrooms as you can foraging for them, it is up to you to decide what you are comfortable with.
Step 1: Prevention
This is by far the most important rule on the list. The less dirty your mushrooms get, the less you will have to clean later. Above is an example of keeping you mushroom clean. You can see all of these mushrooms were cut at the bottom to not allow for any extra dirt to get on the other mushrooms.
This is a bad example of keeping your mushroom clean:
You can see the bottom of this mushroom is covered in dirt because it was pulled out of the ground, if we were to put this directly in a mushroom basket or bag , this could get dirt on or inside of your other mushrooms. The best was to avoid this is to cut your mushrooms with a mushroom knife above the ground. Not only does this keep your mushrooms clean, but it also protects the mycelium beneath the surface and promotoes more mushrooms later in the season or for next season.
If you are looking for a mushroom basket or mushroom knife be sure to check out our articles below:
• Top 5 Mushroom Knives
• Top 5 Mushroom Baskets
Step 2: Brush/Blow/Shake
This is probably the minimum amount of cleaning I ever hear of people doing. For this step take the brush on your mushroom knife or any other soft bristle brush and try to brush away any dirt, bugs or debris that you wouldn't want to eat. You can also blow or shake the mushrooms lightly to help with your brushing. If you are cleaning a hollow mushroom such as a Morel or a Trumpet variety, you'll want to cut the mushroom in half or quarters long-ways to clean the inside of the mushroom as well. There will likely be some parts of the mushroom you can't get clean, don't worry about that too much at this stage, just do your best.
Step 3: Rinse/Wipe the Mushrooms
This is probably the most contraversial step. Once again, if you don't want to do this, you don't have to, but hear me out. Many non-gilled mushrooms such as Chanterelle's and Morel's aren't really effected at all by a little water so if you are cleaning these types of mushrooms I would definitely advise rinsing them. I have heard the argument that rinsing gilled mushrooms can make them a bit soggy, however many people take up the gills entirely when cooking, so I don't think its too big of a risk if the gills get a bit soggy but I digress...
For this step you'll want to get a clean bucket or bowl of water depending on how many mushrooms you're cleaning and lightly dip/swish each mushroom. After you do this it can be helpful to check to see if you've actually removed any debris. Do this process up to 3 times until either the mushrooms are clean or the water isn't helping anymore. If at any point the water you are dipping in get so dirty that it is making your mushrooms worse, be sure to switch it out.
If you are really worried about your precious mushrooms getting soggy, you can alwaus wipe the mushroom down with a wet towel instead.
Step 4: Dry the Mushrooms
The best way to do this is to lay your mushrooms on a towel (do not stack) and lightly place another towel on top for a few minutes to soak up excess moisture. After this, move your mushrooms to a fresh towel and lay them out in the sun to dry. If you can't find a sunny spot, any other place where they will dry more quickly is good, such as under a ceiling fan or a heat lamp.
Step 5: Cut off or discard any bad parts
This is always the saddest part of cleaning mushrooms but it's something you should never feel bad about doing. Inevitably there will be some mushrooms either at this stage or an earlier stage that you realize you do not want to eat. When my brothers and I found our first Chanterelle's we had NO IDEA what we were doing and just stuffed all our dirty mushrooms in a bag and threw it in the back of a truck to bounce around with all the other junk back there. When we pulled them out, we realized the bouncing hard ground dirt into the surface of the mushrooms which was impossible to brush/clean off. We were disappointed in ourselves, but instead of tossing the mushrooms, we just shaved off the smallest layer of mushroom we could and made a perfectly good meal from there.
Stuff like this happens, none of us want to waste any part of what we forage but when it is a choice between your health and safety and not wasting part of a mushroom, you should always prioritize your own health and safety.
Conclusion
I hope these tips help make cleaning your mushrooms and easier, more enjoyable process. These are just my opinions and as you pick more mushrooms you'll likely develop your favorite methods of cleaning mushrooms and that is totally fine. Just remember to have fun, find fungi and stay safe!