Storing fresh button mushrooms

[Anna N]

I always understood that the worst way to store fresh mushrooms (button, cremini) was in plastic. Many times I have raged at the store if there were no paper bags available for loose mushrooms and always keep a couple of paper bags on hand to transfer them to when I get home. Even so, they start to wrinkle and look tired after just one day. Lately though I have been buying them in plastic trays covered with plastic wrap. If I carefully remove the mushrooms I need for a dish and then recover and re-seal the wrap, these mushrooms remain fresh looking and tasting for days. What gives? Is the plastic treated in some way? Curious minds want to know.

[ExtraMSG]

I've found that wrapping mushrooms in something absorbent, like a paper towel, and then wrapping them in platic works pretty well. It's similar to how they're wrapped at the store (they're covered in plastic with that little maxi-pad like thing you find in packages of meat to soak up the juices underneath). Just plastic often makes them soggy. Just a paper bag often dries them out. That's my experience.

[Anna N]

Curiously there is NO absorbent pad in these packages. They are solid plastic "boxes" and the mushrooms sit right on the plastic and the "box" is overwrapped with a clingy plastic film.

[gperls]

Here's what Cook's Illustrated said about this:

"When stored at home, mushrooms go quickly from proud and plucky to shriveled and dispirited or slimy and discolored. To test the best storage method, we purchased several 12-ounce packages of button mushrooms. We stored one in its original sealed container, one in a paper bag (suggested by the Mushroom Council and thought to promote air circulation), one in a perforated plastic bag (thought to promote air circulation and hold moisture simultaneously), and one in its original cardboard container with the wrap removed and mushrooms then covered with a damp paper towel. (We did not clean the mushrooms, which can cause bruising and would affect the results.)

At the end of five days, the mushrooms in the paper bag were completely dehydrated. The mushrooms in the perforated plastic bag were spongy and discolored. The mushrooms under the (ever-refreshed) damp paper towel were also discolored but in relatively good condition. The mushrooms in their original sealed container experienced the least deterioration; they were perfectly good after four days. By the fifth day they looked slightly dry and flaky in their container. The moral of this story: Sometimes ready-made packaging has a function beyond simple convenience—sometimes it actually helps to preserve the contents. If you open a sealed package of mushrooms but don't use all the contents, simply rewrap the package (with the remaining mushrooms still inside) with plastic."

[mudbug]

Anna N,

You've forgotten the most crucial element in what decides if the mushrooms start to deteriorate... moisture/condensation which is what you do not want.

Notice that those mushrooms which are prepackaged are dry on the outside and simply maintain their inherent moisture. So with your concerns, I'd recommend purchasing pre-packaged mushrooms OR if you get loose mushrooms, collect them in the grocery store produce plastic bags and once you get them home, remove them, do not wash them, and put them into a clay pot with a lid and no holes. An easy source is a garden center. Find a clay base and a clay pot without a hole or seal the drainage hole with duct tape. They should keep up to a month with this method. This allows the mushrooms to continue to breathe without excessive dehydration. Refridgerators are natural dehydrators by definition of their cooling process.

[Suzanne F]

Mushrooms breathe (sort of) and exhale moisture. Plastic keeps the moisture in and drowns/suffocates the poor little darlings. Paper bags give them too much air, and like fish out of water they also cannot breathe properly and just shrivel up and die. (I'm making this up, but at least the observations are correct, if not the actual science )

I do the "paper towels on top of the mushrooms before rewrapping loosely with plastic" number. Or, if they mushrooms are already sweating, I just cook them all lightly and put them away in the fridge or freezer.

[Anna N]

Mudbug - you are correct - these mushrooms look dry and there is no condensation inside the plastic that I can observe. Shouldn't re-sealing them very quickly help maintain this state?

With the clay pot idea, would you then store that in the 'fridge?

I really don't have a problem - just an observation and a curious mind about that observation which seems in conflict with "received wisdom".