To Rinse or Not To Rinse? March 2, 2012, 7:29 pm For years, I never allowed raw mushrooms, which figure prominently in my column this week, to touch water. I feared they'd bloat up and become enormous, waterlogged things that would never crisp in the pan. I wasn't alone. This was the prevailing wisdom as passed down from veritable Chefs. And it may have been wrong. These days, I usually give mushrooms a quick rinse, and I haven't noticed a difference in the way they cook. It seems that maybe they don't absorb as much water as we all used to think. Even Jacques Pépin says it's okay to rinse your mushrooms, as long as you do it right before cooking them, and make sure to shake all the water out of the crevices (I do this in a colander). How do you clean mushrooms? A damp paper towel? A quick rinse? Not at all? Let us know. And for more about mushrooms, the short video above goes into more detail about the tasty fungi.