That won’t wash: should you rinse your mushrooms?

Our panel proves there’s no magic trick, but one thing’s for sure: they don’t actually go soggy

What’s the best way to prep and cook mushrooms? Should I wipe, wash or simply peel them?
Olivia, by email
“I could witter on about mushrooms all day,” says fungi fan Will Murray, which is good news, because Olivia’s question is somewhat contentious. The chef and co-founder of Fallow, Fowl and Roe, all in London, even grows his own shrooms, and advises his chefs to clean them “at least three times in bowls of cold water”, which brings us straight to the great mushroom washing debate, which has been rumbling on for years.

Writing in the Guardian in 2003, Heston Blumenthal called advice against washing mushrooms in water in case they become waterlogged “nonsense”. He cites Harold McGee, who tested this theory in his book The Curious Cook: “McGee weighed 252g fresh mushrooms, submerged them in water for five minutes, then removed them, blotted the surface moisture and reweighed them.” The result was 258g, which, as McGee noted, is a 16^th of a teaspoon of extra water per mushroom. “This was after five minutes of soaking, so five to 10 seconds of rinsing under running water is going to make no difference whatsoever.”

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