Mushroom caps - Do you peel them?

SyntonicGarden
SyntonicGarden Posts: 944 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Here's one for you. I was preparing mushrooms and popped the stem out and started to peel off the outer layer, using the edge that was nearest where the stem had been.

I was stopped and asked what the [heck] I was doing. When I was taught to cook mushrooms, I was taught to remove the outer layer and have been doing it since.

So my question is this - Are you supposed to peel the outer layer from mushrooms? Is there a health benefit to leaving them on?
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Replies

  • Strokingdiction
    Strokingdiction Posts: 1,164 Member
    I've never peeled a mushroom unless I was just messing around but even then I was eating the 'peel'. I also eat the stem. I only regularly use button, shiitake, button, crimini and portabello mushrooms. Maybe some of the other types are meant to be peeled. I don't use portabella stems when I make steaks out of them but I still wind up cutting it up, sauteing it and eating it.

    It seems like a waste to get rid of those bits.
  • Diza114
    Diza114 Posts: 6 Member
    Great question I have been peeling mushrooms for years depending how long I've had them, really fresh mushrooms should only need to be wiped clean.
  • So_Much_Fab
    So_Much_Fab Posts: 1,146 Member
    In my 47 years of existence I've never heard of peeling mushrooms!?
  • peleroja
    peleroja Posts: 3,979 Member
    Mushrooms have peels?!

    Seriously, it has never in my life occurred to me to peel a mushroom of any kind purchased from the grocery store. I just wipe them clean and cook them.

    But I don't like mushrooms myself so I typically only cook them for others. No one's ever said anything though....
  • misty5976
    misty5976 Posts: 45 Member
    Hmmm. I've honestly never heard of peeling mushrooms.

    So, no - I dont peel them. :)
  • michelefrench
    michelefrench Posts: 814 Member
    didn't even know it was possible to peel a mushroom???
  • giggitygoo
    giggitygoo Posts: 1,978 Member
    Wipe em down with a damp cloth, trim off fibrous parts of stem and cook.

    I have never heard of peeling them, that's a ton of work!
  • ribbismom
    ribbismom Posts: 13 Member
    I never used to peel them until I took a cooking class and the teacher told us to peel first, then rinse. Said you can't get enough of the dirt off by rinsing alone and full-on washing can damage the tender flesh. Right or wrong? I have no idea.
  • Evotchka
    Evotchka Posts: 144 Member
    I'm a fellow peeler! My mom taught me that when I was young. Don't know if it's a cultural thing? I'm from Germany.
  • wolfsbayne
    wolfsbayne Posts: 3,116 Member
    I've never peeled a mushroom. I've seen cooking shows where they tell you to wipe them and not wash them, but I wash them every time with water and my fingers. It doesn't seem to hinder the texture or flavor any.
  • ThePinkPanda
    ThePinkPanda Posts: 208 Member
    i peel my mushrooms as well. i don't feel like i could get them clean enough just by rinsing them.
  • mlanders22
    mlanders22 Posts: 140 Member
    This is honestly one of the most confusing things I've read today. You can peel a mushroom? Mind boggled.
  • j_bark
    j_bark Posts: 1,274 Member
    Mushrooms are ambrosia. Wash, slice, cook. What is this peeling thing you speak of?
  • debbiesats
    debbiesats Posts: 65 Member
    My grandma used to peel mushrooms so that's what I learned to do but now I just wipe, only peel these days if they're getting a little old and slimy. If I was picking them in the wild from a field of cowpats rather than getting them cultivated indoors I think I might be peeling them like grandma did :smile:
    And I always eat the stalks, full of flavour, why waste half the mushroom?
  • redwoodkestrel
    redwoodkestrel Posts: 339 Member
    Mushroom peeling is a thing?! Didn't know it was even possible to peel a mushroom!

    I am an avid mushroom eater, both store-bought as well as wild mushrooms I forage for. Have never peeled one in my life. :happy:
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    I love mushrooms, eat them all the time, and never heard of peeling them. However, I've also never taken a cooking class, but this is something I can't imagine adopting.
  • saltedcaramel86
    saltedcaramel86 Posts: 238 Member
    Nope! My dad used to but I never have....just sounds like extra work which = longer for food to enter my mouth! :noway:

    I looooooooooove mushrooms!
  • kayduro
    kayduro Posts: 249 Member
    Another one here for 'never heard of peeling a mushroom'. I believe they are only meant to be gently wiped or brushed with a very soft bristled brush called a mushroom brush. I only know there is such a thing as a mushroom brush because I won one once as a door prize at a kitchen party,
  • SyntonicGarden
    SyntonicGarden Posts: 944 Member
    This is honestly one of the most confusing things I've read today. You can peel a mushroom? Mind boggled.

    Heh. When I first shown how to do it, that was my response.

    But... If you pop the stem, there's a thin piece of peel on the inside / underside of the mushroom. That's what you use to peel the mushroom. It comes off in little wedges.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    I have a mushroom brush - I have never heard of peeling them! Seems like entirely more effort than I want to spend on my mushrooms.
  • MysteriousMerlin
    MysteriousMerlin Posts: 2,270 Member
    Sometimes when I rinse them off a bit of...skin, peel...will come off, but I don't deliberately take it off.
  • Jenni129
    Jenni129 Posts: 692 Member
    I have never heard of peeling a mushroom. All the shows on TV that I have watched say to wipe them off with a damp cloth. If they look too dirty for that, I will rinse them. It is said that the average person inadvertently eats a pound of dirt in a lifetime! :noway:
  • suncluster
    suncluster Posts: 539 Member
    I take a spoon and scrape out the ribs of a portabello after removing the stem.
    I have never peeled the outside of any mushroom.
  • Anahita_Swims
    Anahita_Swims Posts: 4,127 Member
    i eat the raw with skins on... :o
  • mebepiglet123
    mebepiglet123 Posts: 327 Member
    I to was taught by my mum to peel them, but we ate them straight off the farm where cows could have pooed on them. I don't peel the one I buy from supermarket tho.
  • FredDoyle
    FredDoyle Posts: 2,273 Member
    Mushrooms used to be grown in manure hence some people would peel them as a precaution against ecoli.
    These days, at least in Canada, they use a pasteurized substrate, so most people don't bother to peel them.
  • gottobethin2014
    gottobethin2014 Posts: 71
    I eat the whole thing including stalks :)
  • Galatea_Stone
    Galatea_Stone Posts: 2,037 Member
    NONONONONONO!

    Please don't peel your mushrooms. Wipe them, wash them a little if you must, but don't peel them. Why would you want to remove the outer skin? That is the part that gets the little bit of caramelization that makes them taste so much better in sauces and as a side dish.

    My mother uses the canned things. It makes me so very sad.
  • George_Baileys_Ghost
    George_Baileys_Ghost Posts: 1,524 Member
    Just the cap...
  • michellemybelll
    michellemybelll Posts: 2,228 Member
    i don't think i would if i cooked with them. i don't cook much, but i also don't peel food much. i eat chopped up mango and leave the peel on, i don't peel shrimp, eat 'em peel and all.

    i do, however, peel bananas. i feel like that would be tough to choke down.

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