Choosing and Storing Mushrooms

Freshly picked mushrooms should be firm but moist with no damp patches. Dryness, particularly at the end of the stem, betrays that they have been stored for several days. If mushrooms impress by a heady smell, it is a guarantee of freshness, though by no means all species have much aroma.

Mushrooms picked in the wild come in many different sizes and stages of maturity, with leaves, earth and fragments of wood sticking to them; cultivated versions of the same variety are likely to be cleaner and more uniform. To detect worms, break the stems from the caps or cut one or two mushrooms open; a few worms are not harmful and can be cut away easily with a knife.