Keeping mushrooms fresh.

Silence Dogood here. In yesterday’s post, “Keeping fresh greens fresh,” I shared a technique for emptying a bag or package of fresh greens, such as spinach, arugula, spring or mesclun mixes, or other cut-leaf lettuces into a clear plastic clamshell container to keep them fresh longer. The trick is to put a paper napkin in the bottom of the clamshell before adding the greens and adding a second napkin on top before closing the container.

Not only does emptying the often packed greens into the container aerate them, but the napkins absorb any extra moisture to prevent rotting, while the airtight container keeps the greens from drying out. The woman who shared the tip with the members of our CSA (organic subscription farm) said greens stored this way stayed fresh for her up to two weeks. I tried it with a bag of slightly soggy baby arugula and the arugula’s not showing a sign of trouble a week later, a miracle as far as I’m concerned. (Arugula is my all-time favorite green, but indulging in it off-season is a pricey business, and there’s nothing as disappointing as reaching for a bag in the crisper drawer and finding that it’s already yellowed or turned to slime.)

Anyway, all this thinking about saving produce from a slimy and rotten end invariably brought that other quick-to-spoil veggie, mushrooms, to mind. Typically, groceries offer mushrooms in tightly plastic-wrapped styrofoam cartons, or loose so you can put them into plastic produce bags. In farmers’ markets, we usually get our mushrooms in paper bags. Neither of these is a great method for storing mushrooms in the crisper drawer.

Mushrooms need to breathe or they decompose. I can think of few things as revolting as decomposing mushrooms, especially since they smell even worse than they look. If you like to always have mushrooms on hand because you use them often, as I do, plastic wrap and plastic bags are a definite drawback.

Paper bags might seem like the perfect alternative, and perhaps they are, if you have enough counter space to keep the bag out in the open. But if, like mine, your counter space is at a premium and you need to store your mushrooms in the crisper drawer, beware: In my experience, the paper bag becomes soggy practically overnight. If you don’t use those mushrooms the day you buy them (or at the very latest the following day), you end up with a sodden, decomposing bag and—that’s right—decomposing mushrooms within. Ugh!

There is a third way to keep mushrooms, and that’s in a mushroom keeper, an unglazed terracotta canister with holes in the top for ventilation. I was lucky enough to find one of these for about a dollar at a Salvation Army store and snapped it up. And I use it to store garlic bulbs.

Say what?! Well, I don’t doubt that a mushroom keeper would be great for storing mushrooms, since the terracotta and vent holes would absorb moisture and let the mushrooms breathe. But unless you buy about seven mushrooms at a time (or, say, three portabellas), there’s not a lot of room in there, which is really impractical for mushroom storage. By the same token, though, a mushroom keeper is about twice as big as a ceramic garlic keeper, so you can store twice as many garlic bulbs, making it a wonderful place to keep your garlic.

But let’s get back to those mushrooms. I couldn’t help but wonder if a napkin-lined plastic clamshell container might not be the answer for them as well. As it happens, I actually have two clamshells in the house, a real rarity around here. The first is full of arugula, but the second’s been washed and dried and is ready for action. Maybe I’ll toss in a paper napkin and add a bunch of mushrooms, cover them with another napkin, close the lid, stick the clamshell in the fridge, and see what happens. Can’t hurt, might help.

Meanwhile, if you have any tips for storing mushrooms, please let me know! I’d love it if I never, ever came face to face with another slimy, past-prime mushroom.

          ‘Til next time,

                    Silence