Tutorial: How To Clean & Cut Mushrooms Properly

The key is to buy proper mushrooms and make sure that you don’t just pick the first packet of mushrooms you find in the store. Examine them properly and if you can, check them all nicely so that you can be sure that they’re edible. If they’re very dirty, you might want to pick another packet, simply because it might not be a good idea to buy mushrooms that are very dirty.

And then follow these steps to properly clean the mushrooms before you cut them.

1. Soak the mushrooms in a bowl of water, make sure that the water level is above the mushrooms. Note that they will float, because they’re quite light, but still keep enough water that it soaks properly.

2. Take a mushroom at a time and rinse it properly. Scrub it with your thumb till you get rid of every bit of dirt, otherwise you’re going to be eating mud in your food.

3. You can spread them out on a kitchen towel to soak up the remaining water and let it dry a little.

4. Once all dry, you can chop off the stem. Depending on how you want your mushrooms to look you can either cut off the entire stem, or just the end bit.

5. Depending on the size of the mushroom, you can peel off the skin on the head. Otherwise you can just skip that part completely.

6. Turn the mushroom on its head and then cut thin slices. Don’t make them too thin, but thin enough that when cooked they don’t become translucent.

7. If you want to, you can rinse it against one more time, towel dry it and then get to cooking!