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Shiitake Mushroom Gravy

A savory gravy made with dried shiitake mushrooms, button mushrooms, soy sauce, and herbs.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shiitake and mushroom match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 552 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: wheat, soy (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Place shiitake mushrooms in medium bowl and add boiling water. Cover with a small plate and set aside 30 minutes.

  2. Drain mushrooms, reserving soaking liquid. Remove and discard stems from shiitake mushrooms, then slice mushrooms into strips and set aside.

  3. Place mushroom soaking liquid into measuring cup, adding water if necessary, to make 2 cups. Add soy sauce to mushroom liquid and set aside until ready to use.

Make the gravy

  1. In medium saucepan, heat oil over medium heat.

  2. Add onion and cook, stirring often, until golden brown, about 9 minutes.

  3. Add sugar, thyme, button mushrooms, and reserved shiitakes; cook, stirring occasionally, until button mushrooms are tender, about 4 minutes.

  4. Add flour and cook, stirring occasionally, 1 to 2 minutes.

  5. Whisk in reserved mushroom liquid and cook, stirring continuously, until thickened, 5 minutes.

  6. Stir in parsley, and add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Serve

  1. Serve hot.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Shiitake + mushroomtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together552 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Olive + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,641 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  3. Mushroom + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  4. Shiitake + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together412 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Shiitake + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together86 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Dried shiitake mushrooms
Provide the main earthy, savory flavor and chewy texture in the gravy.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the liquid into a gravy as it cooks with the fat and mushroom liquid.
Mushroom soaking liquid
Supplies concentrated mushroom flavor and the liquid base of the gravy.
Onion
Browns and sweetens as it cooks, adding depth to the gravy's flavor.
Button mushrooms
Add moisture and body, softening into the gravy's savory base.

The step that matters

Cooking the onion until golden brown. Browning the onion slowly develops sweet, deep flavors through the Maillard reaction and caramelization. Pale onions leave the gravy tasting flat, so keep the heat moderate and stir often to avoid scorching.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shiitake, mushroom, sauce, olive, sugar, thyme, flour):

  1. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  2. Shallotbetter flavor fit
  3. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shiitake, mushroom, sauce, olive, sugar, thyme, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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