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Never eat a wild mushroom identified from a website. This one helps you rule things out. It cannot rule anything in.

Mr Mushroom
← The kitchen

Brush, do not wash

Clean with a brush and a damp cloth, not under a tap.

Why

A mushroom is around 90 per cent water already and behaves like a sponge. Water it absorbs at the sink has to be driven off in the pan before any browning can start, and by the time it has gone the mushroom has stewed in its own liquid and turned grey and slippery. The exceptions are morels, which need rinsing because of what lives in the pits, and cauliflower mushroom, whose folds trap conifer needles that no brush will reach.

How

  1. 01Brush grit off in the field, before it works its way into the gills. This is why foraging knives have a brush on the end.
  2. 02Wipe stubborn dirt with a barely damp cloth.
  3. 03Where a rinse is unavoidable, do it fast under running water and dry immediately, rather than soaking.
  4. 04Trim rather than wash: a dirty stem base is easier to cut off than to clean.

What this step actually needs

What this step needsMushroom brush$6.05What this step needsForaging knife with brush$31.99

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Species this matters most for

Chanterelle

Cantharellus cibarius, C. californicus and relatives

King bolete, porcini

Boletus edulis and the edulis group

Hedgehog mushroom

Hydnum repandum, H. umbilicatum

Matsutake, pine mushroom

Tricholoma murrillianum, T. magnivelare

The other techniques

The dry sauté

Hot dry pan first. Fat only after the water has gone.

Cook it properly, and cook it through

Eight to ten minutes minimum, and longer for anything thick.

Drying

The default preservation method, and for some species an improvement.

Freezing, cooked

Cook first, then freeze. Never freeze raw.