I have found slugs that are MUCH smaller an my pinky fingernail. Could fit about 10 of these guys on a morel, perfectly camouflaged. Once I found one of those, I became a devoted rinse-first kind of guy…
Alton Brown did an experiment once where he weighed mushrooms after soaking them or up to 30 minutes. They started at 4oz and even after 30 mins… ballooned to… 4.25oz.
Wash or soak if you want. There’s no reason not to. Rather obviously, pat them dry or let them drain.
I’m not having a real problem… with short dip and spin dry method. Heck… I guess I could soak… then lay them out on paper towels to desiccate a bit any way. But cooked bugs/worms… are bad ?
I have seen people raising nightcrawlers… to fry?
The worms… Victor loves… are frozen and then becomes edible? Would cooked bugs be any different?
Curious on any bug data ?
Some are crunchy some are squishy. Almost all creepy. Bees are the exception since they only deal in flowers and honey. Unfortunately they are also poisonous and if magnified, actually are creepy.
Glad to be of assistance! ![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}
Why would you want bugs in your mushrooms when you can easily remove them and not compromise the quality of the mushroom?
I don’t think the bugs will cause any harm? Its just that in years and years of a quick soaking (and selling morels, too, and talking to customers on how they do it), I’ve heard of the no-soak school of thought but don’t practice it. And I don’t think it makes a difference.
JD
Washing mushrooms including morels is just fine. If you’re worried about them absorbing moisture (they don’t) then you can toss them in the oven for a little while to dry them out before you use them.
A little extra protein isn’t going to hurt. I soak 'em when it looks like they need it, but have eaten plenty that weren’t soaked. I’ve never had an issue either way, but I mostly saute them for sauces rather than trying to fry them crisp.
-Al
But again, given that you can easily wash them with no adverse effects… why on earth wouldn’t you?
For me, it depends how clean and undamaged they look. If they look good, I clean them but I don’t soak them. I’ve never had any regrets, eg no little larvae climbing out in the pan and making a desperate run for safety, no wee carcasses on the plate. And the unknown unknown just doesn’t bother me. I’m also talking about cooking for myself, when only my sensibilities and concerns are the issue. I have had morels that showed signs of infestations, then I soak 'em in salted water.
I’ve never knowingly eaten larvae from morels, but I know I ate plenty from the kale we grew in our garden growing up, at least until we started using bio-warfare (bacillus thuringiensis). Didn’t lose any sleep over it.
-Al
I’m not that squeamish either Al, but I simply don’t see a reason NOT to soak them. They don’t degrade, they’re cleaner, they absorb very little water. Given there’s zero downside, I don’t see a reason not to wash them.
Why not? It’s extra work that in most cases doesn’t add value for me. Apparently it does for you, so by all means you should soak them.
-Al
There isn’t a better preparation for these in Paul’s post.
I did a we bit of experimenting with my last batches:
These were given to me… and were soaked and stored in Tupperware containers!!
I had some good advice from You All…
I made three batches:
I first halved the mushrooms, and laid them on a paper towel , then into a 200 degree oven for 20 mins. This does help release/dry some of the water, I found that you need to put about four layers of paper towels, to catch the liquid that is released. I allowed them to cool slightly.
Batch one: floured, egg wash , crumbled Saltines… this provided and very nice crust , it also had about the correct amount of salt. Still a bit soggy in the middle thou,
Batch two: flour, egg wash, flour with seasoned salt ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
, cayenne pepper, blk pepper… Original recipe, good crust, still a tad mushy in middle.
Batch three: Flour, egg wash, combination flour and I had some dried Brioche crumbs 50/50. This time for frying, I allowed the butter to foam ( my usual way ), then add my mushrooms… turned down the heat and fried!! this allowed the mushroom to cook slower, releasing the interior liquid and provided the best mushroom batch of the night!! These had a superior crust and the mushroom had a nice al dente texture!! I like the brioche bread crumb idea!!
Cheers
I bought some morels this weekend at the fery building in SF and prepared them last night.
The sight of 2 crawling larva in the bag was enough of a sight for me to do a salt water soak which also yielded lots of other dirt. After soaking I gently squeezed the morels and patted then drier with a paper towel. They pan fried up nice and crisp.
We had some the other night done in the simple top method…they were fabulous!
Will definitely have them this way again!!