I was speaking to a German friend and she was telling me how she got violently ill because she ate re-heated mushroom soup in the evening. I had never heard any warnings about cooking mushrooms twice; I love cooking all the time and none of my cookbooks ever forbid such a thing. However, all her German friends were very familiar with this rule. For more specifics, I asked her what kind of mushrooms they were, and they were store-bought Champignons (button) mushrooms. Her brother ate the soup when it was heated the first time and he was not ill.
So, is this really true? I could swear I’ve eaten re-heated mushrooms on several occassions with no side effects. Somebody please give me the straight dope on this one.
“We can still be friends…just not the kind who talk to each other.”
Probably not, unless perhaps the soup had a milk or cream base and somehow it had gone sour. There’s no reason why something containing mushrooms that has been stored properly should make you sick when reheated.
People also have a tendency to blame the last thing they ate on getting sick when in fact they have a minor 24 hour intestinal virus. The first thing that comes up is always the last thing you ate and usually gets the blame. I didn’t eat a hot dog for almost 10 years for this reason. I’m a little better educated these days about viruses and food preservation. Although I could see where you might not want something for awhile after tasting it twice!
That’s what I figured…I’m just wondering why most people she spoke have also heard the advice not to eat reheated mushrooms. Her explanation was that some protein in the mushrooms break down when they’re cooked the first time, but they’re edible. However, the second time they’re cooked, they break down further and are mildly poisonous. It just didn’t quite make sense to me that simply reheating would produce enough heat to break down the proteins to something poisonous, and second, even if they could, why wouldn’t they have broken all the way down the first time?
Well, FWIW, I’m one of the most paranoid food-safety people I know, and I have NEVER heard anything about “you shouldn’t eat reheated mushrooms”.
I’m with **Needs–**five will get you ten that it was a cream or milk-based soup which sat out on the counter for the afternoon, like if she had it for lunch, and left it out, and then reheated it for supper. It only takes about 3 hours for those bacteria to multiply and spoil the soup. It might not even taste spoiled as such, but it can still make you sick.
Besides (big point here), if it really was dangerous to eat reheated mushroom soup, then what about Campbell’s Soup? Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup is basically cooked at the factory, sealed into cans, and then you reheat it at home. And I have direct personal experience that you can put the pot away in the fridge and heat it up the next day with no ill effects. Not to mention at least three generations of Americans who all grew up eating reheated tuna noodle casserole, which is made with (of course) Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup.
And yes, commercial mushrooms are the exact same store-bought button champignon mushrooms that your German friends are talking about. My guess would be that maybe it’s a German thing, left over from the days before refrigeration. Americans grow up with the ever-present fridge, but not all the rest of the world has the same access to major appliances.
I’ve never heard anything about “mushroom proteins breaking down”. Sounds like an explanation concocted to explain something that people already were doing.
P.S. I cook with Fannie Farmer at my right hand, the Joy of Cooking at my left, and the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook in reserve, and none of them says anything about not reheating mushrooms, and they’re about as mainstream as you can get.
This is abject nonsense and I would think the Germans would know better. Think about all the re-heated pizza consumed around the world with no ill effects.