Peeling Mushrooms?

Ok, so we are sitting around the dinner table tonight and my husband looks at the roasted mushrooms on his plate and says, "You cheated!  You didn't peel them."

I was gobsmacked.  I've never heard to peeling mushrooms -- just rinse them well and prepare.  I asked him where he heard this and he said he was taught this in school and at home.

So, is peeling mushrooms an British thing?  Or am I just horribly behind the times. 

What kind of mushrooms?  I can't even imagine how you'd peel white mushrooms??

All the cookery books and TV chefs always say that youre not to peel them... you're not even to wash them... just brush them.

I dont eat mushrooms, but im sure i've never seen them peeled.

Hmm... I never heard of peeling (or washing) mushrooms.  I thought you were supposed to just brush off the dirt and then cook them.  My SO has never commented on my unwashed and unpeeled mushrooms so I dunno what to tell you!!

My Polish bf used to do that too, and I told him I've never heard of it.  He asked his Mom, and she said they peel the mushrooms if they came from the forest - I think like wild mushrooms. 

I was them.

Well, doing a bit of Googling it appears they used to recommend it in the days before 'farmed' mushrooms.  I'm not a mushroom fan either and neither were my family, so I was never taught any different.  Just figured they were like any other veg: wash 'em and off you go.

My DH peeled mushrooms.  I was gobsmacked -- looked a bit too much like work to me.    So I taught him to wash them (I know you're not meant to, but I just can't get to grips with the idea of just brushing them).  Peeling takes FOREVER!

Peeling mushrooms?? Really?  I'm having trouble even imagining what a peeled mushroom would look like!

 

Wow... That's... interesting.

I'm still trying to figure out why you'd need to anyway... do they really have like.. a "skin"?

the technical reason why you're not supposed t wash them is that they can become waterlogged, but really, if you just give 'em a quick whirl under the tap they're fine. (or so says Alton Brown, my hero)

Cooks Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen did a mushroom test where they weighed mushrooms, washed them, shook them off and weighed them again.  They didn't find that the mushrooms weighed any more after washing (any slight weight gain was attributed to the drops of water stuck to the wet mushrooms).  So they recommend washing them, if they are going to be cooked or used right away.  Because washing does make them turn brown. 

I have seen someone peeling mushrooms on tv before.  But it's never crossed my mind to do it. 

I wash mushrooms...  sometimes trim the stems too...  Never heard of peeling!

I've always heard that washing mushrooms (the white variety, at least, which is all I really ever encounter) makes them tough - not that they become waterlogged or anything, but that they're not as tender afterwards.  Dunno if that's actually the truth, but it's really not that much hassle to quickly wipe them down with a damp paper towel rather than throwing them into a colander under the tap, and since the only way I eat mushrooms is raw, I'd rather them be clean and tender than dirty and tough!

My DH peeled mushrooms.  I was gobsmacked -- looked a bit too much like work to me.    So I taught him to wash them (I know you're not meant to, but I just can't get to grips with the idea of just brushing them).  Peeling takes FOREVER!

Tell me about it!  Hubby made the dinner the other night while I was out; it was a mushroom spaghetti.  He complained that it took forever to do the prep and that the recipe's prep time was way off.

Turns out he peeled a 500g package of small white mushrooms! 

I just wash them and use a little mushroom brush to clean them.  Ive never peeled them either!