Whether in scrambled eggs, in a vegetable stir-fry or on pizza: fresh mushrooms are a must in many dishes.
Nothing beats a sauce or dish with fresh mushrooms. The mushrooms should be consumed as fresh as possible. You can find beautifully fresh specimens, for example, at the weekly market or in bulk in the supermarket. Whether brown or white - mushrooms are ideal in a vegetable stir-fry, in homemade scrambled eggs or as a topping on pizzas.
Fresh cultivated mushrooms in white and or brown
When harvesting, the fruit bodies are usually cut off at the lower part of the stem, the Lower Saxony State Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety informs on its website. They are offered in different stages of development:
with the hat completely closed
fleece mushrooms in which the cap is connected to the stem through the lamellar skin
Mushrooms with opened hat
The color of the slats changes with age: “the darker the older, from gray-pink to light brown to black-brown,” says the article. What should you pay particular attention to when shopping? “The mushrooms must not show excessive staining (usually caused by bruises), the stems should not be watery (gray discolored), and there must be no external mold infestation,” explains the State Office for Consumer Protection. If goods offered in stores show such changes, they are “usually superimposed”.
How can you recognize fresh mushrooms?
The white mushrooms are particularly popular. Freshness
Mushrooms are “hard and dry and free of dark brown spots, the stem ends are light,” says
Oekotest.de;
When cutting, the cut surface should also be “light”. “The light-colored slats show that the mushroom is fresh; in older mushrooms they turn brownish.” Mushrooms with an open bottom could develop spores and spoil, says
Öko-Test,
“but in fresh mushrooms the edge of the cap is with the Stem fused”. It is a good sign if the mushrooms smell “mushroomy-earthy”.
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Which mushrooms should you throw away immediately?
However, if the mushrooms are no longer fresh, leave them alone. The consumer advice center provides information on the
lebensmittel-forum.de platform:
“Mushrooms with colored fuzz, with weeping and rotten spots or with an unpleasant smell should be disposed of, as an infestation with mold that is harmful to health can be the cause.”
White coating on mushrooms – what is it?
What does it mean when mushrooms have white fuzz? “Mushrooms are basically the fruiting bodies of the 'mycelium' that actually grows underground,” explains the consumer advice center on the platform. This is a network of white threads that runs through the soil or substrate. “The white fuzz on the mushrooms is also this mycelium. It occurs when stored in a damp room for too long, for example if condensation has formed in the packaging. As long as the mycelial fluff on an edible mushroom is white, there is no danger.”