How to clean porcini mushrooms: tips and secrets to avoid mistakes

Porcini mushrooms are among the most known and appreciated mushrooms. Their characteristic white flesh and their unmistakable taste make these mushrooms a very versatile ingredient, suitable for pasta dishes, savory pies or tasty side dishes. Like all mushrooms, you need to clean them well and be sure they are fresh before using them for your preparations.

Porcini mushrooms are among the most known and appreciated mushrooms for their characteristic white pulp and their unmistakable taste. Porcini mushrooms are a very versatile ingredient, suitable for pasta dishes, savory pies or tasty side dishes. Like all mushrooms, you need to clean them well and be sure they are fresh before using them for your preparations. How can you clean them? It is not enough to wash them and use them even if they have small worms. You have to remove the dirty part and start to clean them thoroughly for your recipes.

How to clean porcini mushrooms

First check that tiny pests do not nestle in your mushrooms. Take a sheet of newspaper and lay the mushrooms down with the chapel facing down for a few minutes, if there were any pests, the smell of paper would move them away. Then start cleaning: take a knife with a sharp blade and remove the soil left on the base of the stem (1).

Then, gently remove the head from the stem with a rotary motion, making sure that it does not break (2).

Then, take a slightly damp cloth and dab the head. The cloth will remove the last residues of dirt. Then take the chapels and cut them lengthways (3).

Tips

Porcini mushrooms are very spongy, so do not wash them under running water or leave them to soak. Use a damp cloth to remove dirt or soil on the chapels.

The stems can be cooked cut into thin slices or blended for a filling.