Knowledge Base > Dan Marek - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Dan Marek - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

This event was on Tuesday, January 28, 2025 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern

Join Chef Dan Marek in his virtual office as he welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to Ask Anything – from cooking techniques to cours… Read More.

Recorded

Question:

Please explain how to identify or know what are “bad spots” that need to be removed on mushrooms from your refrigerator that you are getting ready to prepare.?

— Melissa Bryant

Answer:

So that's a little tricky depending on the mushroom too, right? So just your standard, you know, like, uh, the mini Bellas or something like that, or the brown mushrooms, just even your white mushrooms, you're going to see, uh, a little bit of browning that's happening in those circles. Um, my go-to way to be able to find a bad mushroom is to smell it. If it smells off, it's probably not good and I'm always going to err on the side of if it smells too bad, like funky, I'm gonna throw it away. And I tell my wife the same thing. If you have a question about it, it's probably not good to be able to eat that as well too. But, um, mushrooms are a little hard to spot, uh, or bad. The spots or mushrooms are a little hard to find because they're usually the same color as the mushroom. Um, but they will be a little darkened in certain areas. If you're buying mushrooms that are sliced, it's much more obvious because the white that's on it, you'll see the discolorations on those. Um, but really lead with your nose. Just put your face right up into the mushrooms, smell it really well. If it has an offput smell, it's probably gone past date. So, um, you know, try to get your mushrooms, um, you know, in season as much as possible. Know where you're getting them from. A lot of times you'll find grocery stores that are putting things out there that are, you know, it's a day or two from the expiration date. So I always check the expiration dates if they're packaged like that as well too. I buying from local farms too, you know, that's one of the great things is mushroom farming has become, um, a very lucrative industry and people are doing it inside just as much as outside as well too, and you're able to get mushrooms year round. So, uh, try to look for a local prove of mushrooms and get them as fresh as possible. Um, pick that day is fantastic. They last a little bit longer for you as well too, so yeah. Um, you know, besides just looking for your, with your eyes and looking for those spots, use your nose more often, um, than you would think too, as well too.
Dan Marek

Dan Marek

Director of Plant-Based Culinary & Dev

rouxbe.com