Off the Shelf
Crimini mushrooms dressed up with a fancy name

Crimini mushrooms (aka cremino, cremini) are just a close botanical relative of the white and button mushrooms we know so well — darker in color, a little meatier in texture and more pronounced in flavor. The story in food circles is that some smart marketer decided crimini sounded more "gourmet." Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

From "The New Food Lover's Companion" by Sharon Tyler Herbst

Pssssst. We're gonna let you in on a little secret. Those chocolate-brown crimini mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) you paid a little more for in the market, thinking maybe they were some unusual Italian variety? They're the kissing cousins of those everyday cultivated white mushrooms you're used to seeing. Crimini is not the Italian word for mushroom (that's funghi). It's just a fancy name for this dark-brown, firm mushroom, which has a slightly more pronounced flavor and longer shelf life (five to seven days) than white mushrooms. By the way, button mushrooms are just immature white mushrooms, and portobellos are mature crimini mushrooms. The crimini is sometimes called the common brown mushroom or Roman mushroom. All of these mushrooms require the same treatment: Buy them when their caps are closed and the gills unexposed. Store with cool air circulating around them, preferably in the refrigerator crisper, in a single layer on a piece of damp paper towel. Use mushrooms as soon as possible. Don't wash them; just brush them or wipe them off with a damp paper towel.