It’s Nearly Impossible to Overcook Mushrooms—Here’s Why

Mushrooms are such a staple ingredient that it seems rude to refer to them as fungi. Yet that is, of course, what they are. Mushrooms add earthy umami flavor and tender, meaty texture to any dish. Best of all, they lend themselves well to the novice home chef, because they’re almost impossible to overcook.

Can you overcook mushrooms?

Not really. Whether you cook with portobellos, shiitakes, chanterelles or any other kind of mushroom, fungi are tough to mess up. You can steam, roast or sautee ‘shrooms for long periods of time without them toughening up or drying out. If mushrooms are stored properly before cooking, the final texture won’t end up all that far from where it started.

America’s Test Kitchen explored this phenomenon by steaming a piece of beef, a chunk of zucchini and a slice of mushroom in a Dutch oven for 45 minutes. The zucchini became an overcooked pile of mush, while the beef was tough, dry and gray. The mushroom remained perfectly tender.

This is because of the unique structure of fungi, explains America’s Test Kitchen. Mushroom cell walls are composed of chitin, a polysaccharide that can withstand a lot of heat. (This compound can also be found in the exoskeletons of insects and crustaceans to give a sense of how resilient it is.) The chitin content of mushrooms means they can be cooked for a long time without breaking down like other foods do.

What’s the best way to cook mushrooms?

Nearly all mushroom recipes are user-friendly. Stuffed mushrooms are a particularly great introductory recipe, though. Separate the stem from the cap and fill the cavity with a mixture of meat, bread crumbs, herbs and cheese. Brush the tops with melted butter before baking. Just be careful when cooking—while a mushroom is hard to overcook, you don’t want to end up with singed bread crumbs!