This Is Why You Can Never Overcook Mushrooms

Most food requires a lot of patience and skill to prepare. However, mushrooms are an unusual food to cook and don’t really fall into either of those categories.

Mushrooms tend to get a bad reputation, but they are actually the perfect food to cook. Mushrooms share characteristics of both meats and vegetables. They have a high water content, but also are full of protein.

In an experiment done by America’s Test Kitchen, mushrooms were put to the test to show their versatility against a piece of beef tenderloin and a slice of zucchini.

Each slice of food was cut to an equal length and steamed for the same period of time. At five minute intervals, the pieces of food were tested using a CT3 Texture Analyzer “to determine how much force was required to bite into each piece of food.”

At the five minute mark, the three pieces of food seemed to be at a similar place.

When tested at the ten minute mark, there was a drastic change between the three pieces of food.

After the 40-minute cook time was up, the beef was super tough and the zucchini was very mushy. The mushroom however, stayed nice and tender.

The mushroom is able to stay tender because of the make-up in the cell walls thanks to a substance called chitin. The chitin remains stable when put against heat, allowing mushrooms to cook in all different environments.

Check out the full experiment below to see how mushrooms are impossible to overcook!