We have been buying a lot of cremini mushrooms lately. They're in the bin next to the more familiar little white button mushrooms, and they're slightly more expensive but oh so worth it. We got curious about this new favorite mushroom, and decided to look up a few mushroom facts. Here's what we discovered.
What Are Cremini Mushrooms? A Few Mushroom Facts
• Did you know that most of the table mushrooms we eat are all of the same variety? Its name is Agaricus bisporus, according to Wikipedia, and it includes portobello, cremini, and white button mushrooms.
• The difference between these popular varieties of mushrooms is just age. The white button mushrooms, those very familiar kitchen staples, are simply the youngest variety. They have been cultivated, too, for that white color and soft texture. In the wild these mushrooms are usually browner.
• The portobello is the most mature mushroom here; it's really just an overgrown white mushroom! They are left to grow for longer, until they have spread out into that delicious meaty cap.
• The cremini mushroom, then, is just in between these two varieties. It's a moderately mature version of the white button mushroom, which is why it has a similar flavor. It's younger than the portobello, but still related, which is why these are sometimes sold as "baby bella" or "baby portobello" mushrooms.
We enjoy the cremini mushrooms a lot; their slightly more mature state means that they have a browner color, firmer texture, and better flavor than the younger white mushrooms. We use them frequently in stews and soups, since we find that they hold up better in liquid.
Here are a few favorite mushroom recipes:
• Recipe: Rich No-Cream Wild Mushroom Pasta Sauce
• Recipe: Hot and Sour Mushroom, Cabbage, and Rice Soup
• Recipe: Cipollini and Mushroom Tart
• More on mushrooms at Wikipedia
Related: Hey! You Can Wash Mushrooms
(Images: Faith Durand)
Comments (7)
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News from the mushroom and nutrition science world is going to make cremini mushrooms even more popular with consumers. Turns out that exposing mushrooms to the UV rays of the sun makes their natural Vitamin D content bio available in a huge quantity.
There's one company from California already selling these sun-tanned mushrooms. You can read more about here: http://danamccauley.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/d-is-for-mushroom/
view Dana McCauley's profile
I thought you weren't supposed to wash/rinse mushrooms...only clean them with a paper towel. The ones in the pic look drenched. Am I wrong?
view designerny's profile
Wash however you like just make sure its only just before use, and if you're in the non-washing group keep in mind these things are grown in manure not dirt.
view sally599's profile
Designerny, the reason most people give for not washing mushrooms is that they absorb water and it dilutes the flavor but that's just not true (Alton Brown did a test, weighing them before and after a soak and getting barely any difference). Given what they grow in, I always wash my mushrooms carefully.
view Tiamat_the_Red's profile
good to know. Manure 'shrooms sound kind of awful.
view designerny's profile
Hmm, not quite. Creminis and portobellas are a brown variant of a. bisporus, the difference between the two being age. Supermarket white mushrooms and creminis (a.k.a. "baby bellas") are the same age, but different variants of a. bisporus. Their wild ancestors were brown
view Andy M.'s profile
@ designerny: One of the cooking magazines recently covered that topic (likely either Gourmet or Saveur, since those are the 2 I read) and it turned out that mushrooms don't really absorb much water even during a brief soak. I used to wipe them with a damp paper towel but since I read that I've been rinsing them under running water. It's a lot faster and they really don't get soggy.
view Tiny Banquet's profile