The Shroom Broom Contributed By D. Max

Kitchen tools seem to fall into two categories. On the one hand, you have your general-purpose tools. You know, like the knives, pots and pans that you use all the time to make a wide variety of different dishes. The hallmark of a good general-purpose utensil is versatility. You can use the same knife to chop an onion, carve a roast and section a pineapple.

On the other hand, by their very nature, general-purpose tools can't be equally good at everything. For example, you can do a lot with a knife, but when it comes to balling a melon or zesting a lemon, a knife just won't do the job as well as a melon-baller or a lemon-zester would. These specialized tools are designed to do one thing and do it well. They also, however, do just about everything else awfully.

The Mushroom Brush virtually epitomizes this latter category. It is the Koala Bear of the kitchen. You will find it the perfect companion to your cherry pitter, apple corer, gravy skimmer, tart crimper and grapefruit sectioner.

So what exactly is a mushroom brush for?

I like cooking with mushrooms (see Dancing with Ginger). They absorb flavors well, and they have a nice firm resilient texture. When you buy mushrooms, they generally have some bits of dirt clinging to them which should be cleaned off before you use them (unless you enjoy that skritchy feeling on your molars from biting into a morsel of sandy dirt).

The obvious solution is to wash the mushrooms before you use them. That works well enough but the practice is frowned upon by fine chefs (it's true, I saw it on TV). The reason is because the mushrooms behave like sponges and soak up lots of water as you wash them. When you then toss them into your dish, the water will ooze back out carrying the flavor with it. Your stir-fried snow peas and mushrooms will turn into soggy boiled snow peas and mushrooms in a pool of pale brown mushroom broth.

These chefs therefore do not clean their mushrooms with water (think about that next time you eat at a "fancy" restaurant). Instead, they recommend that you dislodge the dirt from the mushrooms by scraping it off with a knife or by using a...

MUSHROOM BRUSH

The mushroom brush looks very much like a toothbrush that is big enough that you think is was meant for a horse. It is a close cousin to the vegetable brush which is used to scrub such things as carrots and potatoes. However, compared to potatoes, mushrooms are not the sturdiest things in the world, so the bristles are made very softer so as not to damage them or Mr. Ed's delicate gums.

To clean a mushroom, you just gently brush off any visible dirt. No water needed. I applied this technique to various types of mushrooms (portabello, shitake, crimini and plain 'ol white). The mushroom brush handled them all well, removing the dirt without tearing or squashing the mushrooms. The process was somewhat tedious, but much less tedious and more thorough than I imagine a knife or fingers would have been. Cleaning the brush was a snap. Run some water over it and then give a good shake or two and it's ready to go again.

One interesting side-effect to the brushing process was that the mushrooms acquired a kind of burnished look to them, particularly the crimini. I don't know if they make some kind of mushroom Turtle Wax you can use to enhance this effect, but if you're planning on making a stuffed mushroom dish, you might find that the gleaming look gives your presentation that extra flare.

Do you really need a mushroom brush? The real answer is, how much free space do you have in your kitchen drawer?