Most difficult vegetable to clean

Last night, while cleaning a large leek--badly, as it turned out--I wondered which vegetables are more difficult to clean than leeks, which seem to have built a system of soil compartments unrivaled by other vegetables.

Any suggestions?

By the way, what's your method of cleaning leeks?

I cut off the tough green, then slice them lengthwise nearly all the way. Then lots of running water and riffling the layers like a deck of cards.

For me, the hardest things to clean properly are wild mushrooms.

I cut off the tough green, then slice them lengthwise nearly all the way. Then lots of running water and riffling the layers like a deck of cards.

For me, the hardest things to clean properly are wild mushrooms.

That's just about how I clean leeks, but it sometimes isn't enough.

As for mushrooms, I learned never to run water over them, but to rub them with a dry towel. Is that what you do?

Now that I think of it, my own potatoes are truly difficult to clean. They have many tiny indentations into which rests a few ounces of caked up soil. I have to scrub them with a scratchy pad.

That's exactly what I do, and if they're really dirty, a moist towel. Getting into the nooks and crannies, especially for things like lobster mushrooms, is a real challenge.

What Stuart said. Just let water run through the "slots" where the dirt hides. The good thing is, you can easily tell when they're clean.
I really don't find any vegetable that much of a challenge.
Mushrooms are a PITA but it's just drudge work, not really difficult.

Jerusalem artichokes...the bumpy tubers cause a lot of waste that makes me uneasy. If they are small a good brushing without peeling is best.
Nothing special about leeks other than what has already been mentioned.

I'll vote for leeks too.

That's exactly what I do, and if they're really dirty, a moist towel. Getting into the nooks and crannies, especially for things like lobster mushrooms, is a real challenge.

I recently saw an episode of Alton Brown that proved the whole mushrooms-are-sponges theory is false.
He even submerged them and the amount of water they gained was just a tiny fraction. They are mostly water, anyway, apparently. Since I saw that, I just rinse and shake them in a collander, then dump them onto some paper towels and blot.

Mushrom - I use a damp mushroom brush, brush softly all over top and underside, rinse and put on paper toweling

Leeks - I cut off the tough green end and remove the wilted and worn top layer, sometimes the second. Run under a strong stream of water, while shuffling the layers like a deck of cards. Let drain.

Fresh garden carrots - require a stiff brushing to remove all the dirt, if they are young I don't peel, if older I peel.

That is all the comes to mind as far as tedious prep for a veggie.

I'm not a fan of washing leaf or romaine lettuce. Actually, it's not the washing so much, but it is the drying. In order to get it as dry as I like, I have to lug out the salad spinner. Of course that then requires washing, drying and putting away...

[Jenise]

For me, the hardest things to clean properly are wild mushrooms.

My vote goes to chantarelles! I have six pounds in the garage fridge that have to be cleaned and sauteed today, and I'm dreading it.

For chanterelles, I would gladly suffer !
Remembering being in Austria during the season - eating them at every meal - heaven. Have not had fresh since then.
Tell us more about how they will be used.

Morels get my vote. The issue is how to get the sand out of the nooks without inflicting structural damage to the shroom.

Mark Lipton

Morels get my vote. The issue is how to get the sand out of the nooks without inflicting structural damage to the shroom.

But shouldn't mushrooms be disqualified from this discussion, being fungi?

I'd say cauliflower. A wonderful vegetable that I love cooking with - but I hate cleaning and preparing it.

Carrie, Alton's experiment was... not a great one. Besides not accurately measuring weight uptake, he didn't consider flavor elements that wash away nor did he look at textural changes from the immersion. Nor did he look at wild mushrooms, only white supermarket Agaricus.

Try this: get some flavorful mushrooms, preferably something like a porcini. Do the conventional dry-wipe cleaning on half of them, then wash the other half. Grill them up, then taste side by side. You'll never wash another mushroom again.

[Robin Garr]

That's exactly what I do, and if they're really dirty, a moist towel. Getting into the nooks and crannies, especially for things like lobster mushrooms, is a real challenge.

For what it's worth, Alton Brown once took on the don't-wash-mushrooms wisdom in a myth-checking show, and went through one of his wacky procedures in which he weighed dry, rinsed and soaked mushrooms and found only a trivial uptake of water when he weighed the results, almost within the margin of error.

[Robin Garr]

I recently saw an episode of Alton Brown that proved the whole mushrooms-are-sponges theory is fals

Oops, posted this before I read the whole thread and saw you way beat me to it. Sorry, Carrie!

That's exactly what I do, and if they're really dirty, a moist towel. Getting into the nooks and crannies, especially for things like lobster mushrooms, is a real challenge.

I recently saw an episode of Alton Brown that proved the whole mushrooms-are-sponges theory is false.
He even submerged them and the amount of water they gained was just a tiny fraction. They are mostly water, anyway, apparently. Since I saw that, I just rinse and shake them in a collander, then dump them onto some paper towels and blot.

Something I've been telling my students for decades. All that extra BS about brushing, wiping, coddling mushrooms. I wash them in water and then dry them. Mushrooms will not absorb water unless the gills are wide open and the mushrooms are past their prime - as is the case with portabellos (which I don't consider mushrooms, anyway, the nasty old things).

Carrie, Alton's experiment was... not a great one. Besides not accurately measuring weight uptake, he didn't consider flavor elements that wash away nor did he look at textural changes from the immersion. Nor did he look at wild mushrooms, only white supermarket Agaricus.

This is an espousal of what I like to call the equines-on-ice school of cookery. Horse hockey.

Some say that you are not supposed to wash mushrooms with water......I find this curious because before they are picked, do they not get rained on, maybe lots of rain? Not that make them not suitable?

I recently saw an episode of Alton Brown that proved the whole mushrooms-are-sponges theory is fals

Oops, posted this before I read the whole thread and saw you way beat me to it. Sorry, Carrie!

Great minds...

[Jenise]

That's exactly what I do, and if they're really dirty, a moist towel. Getting into the nooks and crannies, especially for things like lobster mushrooms, is a real challenge.

For what it's worth, Alton Brown once took on the don't-wash-mushrooms wisdom in a myth-checking show, and went through one of his wacky procedures in which he weighed dry, rinsed and soaked mushrooms and found only a trivial uptake of water when he weighed the results, almost within the margin of error.

And Harold McGee did it before him in The Curious Cook. However, I'd argue that not all mushrooms are equal. What's true of crimini or white mushrooms is not true of Chantarelles, which DO absorb moisture (and turn soggy) quite readily.

Before you throw rocks, try the experiment I suggested with flavorful mushrooms (when I did it, I used porcini). The weight uptake thing is bogus- we don't judge mushrooms by weight, we judge them by aroma, flavor, and texture.

The rain comment is interesting- every mushroom hunter knows that rain waterlogs already-growing mushrooms.

[Jenise]

For chanterelles, I would gladly suffer !
Remembering being in Austria during the season - eating them at every meal - heaven. Have not had fresh since then.
Tell us more about how they will be used.

I bought them now because they're available now, but won't be using them until Christmas. They'll be part of the main course I'm doing for that Christmas dinner-for-70 I cook for annually. Haven't decided in what manner I'll feature them yet--but they'll either be part of the sauce or part of the stuffing for deboned whole roasted capons.

So there are no chantarelles in Wisconsin? You've got a good climate for them--like you, the first time I had chantarelles was in cool Europe. Switzerland, in fact, in August of 1986. I've never forgotten!