# Why are mushrooms so polarizing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 12, 2013, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166 "2013-05-12T18:51:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2015, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166/101 "2015-04-19T02:02:58Z")
When I was in college, I had a part-time job in a shopping mall, directly across from two vendors I’ll call Jeannie and John. We were schmoozing one evening when the place was dead with no customers in sight, and the talk turned to mushrooms. “I can’t stand the texture of mushrooms,” Jeannie said. “I just don’t like having them in my mouth.” I was about to make a lewd and lascivious comment (and Jeannie saw it was coming), but John beat me to it: “Does it remind you of a bad experience, Jeannie?” I spent the next five minutes laughing uncontrollably! ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2015, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166/102 "2015-04-19T02:07:36Z")
When I was kid, I would not eat mushrooms. For one reason, the name. “MUSH” sounds unappetizing. If mushrooms were called “CandyRooms” I probably would have eaten them. Now I like them. Deep fried, or sauteed on a Ribeye steak. Even on a garden salad. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2015, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166/103 "2015-04-19T15:39:41Z")
Factory grown, canned mushrooms are almost tasteless-will picked are much better. As others have mentioned, you should not wash them-then they become slimy and nasty. What about truffles-are they worth the price? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2015, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166/104 "2015-04-19T16:18:55Z")
I hated mushrooms when I was a kid. As an adult I’ve come to an understanding with mushrooms - they work in certain contexts. Grilled mushrooms on a Philly cheesesteak or on a burger? Delicious. As a pizza topping? Horrible. Chopped up in a salad? Maybe. Duxelles? Amazing. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2015, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166/105 "2015-04-19T16:34:38Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I hated mushrooms when I was a kid. As an adult I’ve come to an understanding with mushrooms - they work in certain contexts. Grilled mushrooms on a Philly cheesesteak or on a burger? Delicious. As a pizza topping? Horrible. Pretty much exactly opposite for me, but agree on context being important. Then again, I really like mushrooms, so nothing is going to be a deal-breaker, but pizza, YES, and cheesesteak NO for me. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2015, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166/106 "2015-10-24T22:58:12Z")
I must have seen this thread at some point because I thought about it last night while enjoying a particularly wonderful dinner I made with no less than three different kinds of mushrooms. It would not have been dinner without them! I eat very little red meat but once in a while we’ll indulge in steak. So the recipe was some well-marbled rib steaks generously seasoned with the house spice from a famous old local steakhouse thrown on a hot flaming barbecue with some king oyster mushrooms that I marinated in a Japanese miso vinaigrette with a dash of teriyaki. Main side dish was rice cooked in organic vegetable broth with reconstituted sun-dried porcini mushrooms. I’ve had a hard time finding really good broth but this local organic stuff has a mellow richness and the strong flavor of porcini mushrooms is the perfect added touch. And the veggie was peas with cremini mushrooms (brown mushrooms) sauteed in garlic butter. Man, that was yummy! The steaks were so tender you hardly needed a knife, and the king oysters were perfection. King oyster mushrooms have a firm, meaty texture that’s almost impossible to ruin, and they’re not very absorbent so you can’t over-marinate them. It’s like nature designed them to be foolproof! Creminis are cheap, standard, enjoyable mushrooms, and porcinis add that extra zing to whatever you add them to. I just don’t understand not liking mushrooms! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166/107 "2015-10-25T01:48:32Z")
Several of my close relatives are severely allergic to mushrooms. So, my parents never served them. To this day, I do not know if I am also allergic. But I avoid them. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166/108 "2015-10-25T06:35:22Z")
I’ve only read the first page of this thread and quickly skimmed the rest, so maybe I’ve missed something. Almost all the posts I’ve seen talk about cooked mushrooms (with varied opinions) or canned mushrooms (with unanimous agreement that they’re awful). I only saw one tangential mention of _raw_ mushrooms. I generally like mushrooms, cooked or raw. I eat at salad bar restaurants from time to time, and there is always a bin of mushrooms. They are usually not at all slimy or discolored, although occasionally some of them are. I always pile on a heap of mushrooms when I eat at a salad bar restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166/109 "2015-10-25T07:05:53Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > I just don’t understand not liking mushrooms! 🙂 Well, there’s two-and-a-half pages of people trying to explain it. If you still don’t understand it, I think it’s on you. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166/110 "2015-10-25T07:43:55Z")
When I was a kid I honestly thought that mushrooms were tasteless. It felt like eating cardboard. Now I can quite enjoy them accompanying certain meals. Including sometimes as pizza toppings. There’s plenty of stuff more polarizing than that, for me. Anchovies in pizza? Only a monster would do that to a poor, innocent pizza. ---
**Author:** ![mistymage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mistymage/32/459_2.png) [@mistymage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mistymage)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166/111 "2015-10-25T19:29:31Z")
We’ve ate more mushrooms this year than ever before. Next year will be even better I hope (it’s been a dry autumn). From morels in the spring, dryad’s saddles in the summer and fall, golden oysters (we only found one set of those but they were delicious fried up with butter), puffballs (awesome when used as the “bread” part of pizza or as the “noodle” in a lasagna) to hen-of-the-woods aka maitake fried up with bacon. I skipped preparing the shaggy manes aka Inky Caps and the Pholiotas since for the former they were growing by the garbage cans and the latter has been changed from edible to not edible because of some poisonings. And there there is the store bought ones: portabellas on the grill, shitake stir fried, button mushrooms on shish-ka-bobs. We’ve actually stopped buying canned msuhrooms (which I like) because the prices went up and why pay when you can forage. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166/112 "2015-10-25T21:03:55Z")
I’ve liked mushrooms since I was a kid. Not fresh, though (as in uncooked). They gotta be cooked, preferably sautéed in butter. I even like the slimy canned ones. Then again, I like several weird foods that a lot of people (especially a lot of kids) don’t like: cauliflower, broccoli, oysters (all of them cooked). I’m like the opposite of a normal fussy eater: I hate lots of foods that normal people like (like salad, most fruits, all raw vegetables and a large percentage of cooked ones, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166/113 "2015-10-25T21:28:47Z")
I like everything because I’m a fun guy. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166/114 "2015-10-25T22:20:16Z")
Are mushrooms kosher? can a jew eat them? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166/115 "2015-10-25T23:12:57Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Well, there’s two-and-a-half pages of people trying to explain it. If you still don’t understand it, I think it’s on you. Meh, it was a lighthearted comment alluding to the fact that you can’t really “explain” a subjective like or dislike. I don’t think any of the “explanations”-- including my own – convinced anyone to suddenly start liking or disliking mushrooms, do you? 🙂 My point was that, in my own personal, humble and entirely subjective opinion, the aforementioned dinner would have been much poorer and less interesting without said mushrooms. I think the bottom line here is that opinions on mushrooms are polarizing. (See title.) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166/116 "2015-10-26T00:01:13Z")
I love mushrooms. I’m eating several marinated ones right now, in fact. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166/117 "2015-10-26T07:43:43Z")
‘Texture’ is an interesting reason to dislike mushrooms, because there is an enormous spectrum of texture either/both across the various common edible species. Even for one variety - say the common white shop mushroom (Agaricus spp) - different methods of preparation will result in quite a range of textures. ETA: I ate Hedgehog mushrooms for the first time yesterday. Delicious, but I nearly set the kitchen alight when I flamed the brandy. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166/118 "2015-10-29T06:09:30Z")
Since my post from a couple of years ago earlier in this thread, I have made real strides on the mushroom front. (I’ve been making an effort to expand my palate in general.) I actually get around to using the mushrooms that I purchase these days. I wouldn’t say that I think they’re fantastic, exactly, but incorporating them into my vegetarian burritos just gives me a satisfying feeling of being all grown up and stuff. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166/119 "2015-10-29T12:56:02Z")
I’ve only tasted mushrooms twice. The first was your basic grocery store variety and it tasted like. . . earth. The second was a portabella that was grilled or whatever so as to mimic a steak and it was okay, precisely because it was more steak like than 'shroom like. I have no intention of trying one again, but at the same time if I found one in my food I wouldn’t freak out or throw the food away like I will with almost anything else I don’t like. All that being said, there’s something “off” about them. I hate the way they look, randomly popping up out of the ground. And the way they feel; egad. When I was growing up sauteed mushrooms were one of the things my mother liked to serve for company and for some reason I always ended up having to be the one to slice them. That gross, spongy sensation as the knife goes through and the gills on the underside. _Gills_!I can’t quite find the words but mushrooms have a certain evil “quality”. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166/120 "2015-10-29T14:13:00Z")
Polarized light waves are light waves in which the vibrations occur in a single plane. The process of transforming unpolarized light into polarized light is known as polarization. There are a variety of methods of polarizing light. Mushrooms are just one way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-mushrooms-so-polarizing/658166.md?page=7)