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Old school chef told me to stop washing mushrooms and he was dead wrong
My prep cook swore rinsing portobellos under the tap ruins them, so I tried dry brushing for a week. Three customers sent back slimy, gritty mushroom caps on their burgers that I had to comp. Has anyone else had dry brushing backfire like that?
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kevin_murray8814d ago
Started dry brushing mushrooms a few years back after reading about it and had the same exact problem. Gritty, sandy mushrooms that nobody wanted to eat. Now I just give them a quick rinse in a colander and pat them dry with paper towels right before cooking and it works way better. Honestly, the whole "never wash mushrooms" thing might work for delicate wild ones but for portobellos and creminis a quick rinse makes a huge difference.
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Oh man, I gotta respectfully disagree with you here lol. I've been doing the dry brush method for years now and it works totally fine if you actually take your time with it. The trick is using a stiff pastry brush and really getting into the gills and crevices, not just wiping them off with a paper towel. Most people rush through it and that's where the grit comes from. I think that old school chef might have been onto something actually, because waterlogged mushrooms turn into sponges that ruin the texture when you cook them. A quick rinse is better than nothing for sure, but you're still introducing moisture that messes with how they sear. If you're getting slimy caps from dry brushing, it sounds like your brush was dirty or you weren't being thorough enough with cleaning between batches.
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