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Mushroom Powder

A dried powder made from fresh mushrooms, onions, mace, and white pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and white pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,695 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Mushroom Powder

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash and clean the mushrooms, removing any dark parts and worm-eaten ones.

  2. Place the mushrooms in a stewpan over medium heat without water.

Cook

  1. Add the onions, mace, and white pepper, and simmer until all the liquid has evaporated, shaking occasionally to prevent burning.

Dry and store

  1. Spread the mixture on tins or wire sieves and dry in a 300°F (150°C) oven until crumbled to powder.

  2. Store the powder in small, tightly corked bottles in a dry place.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  4. Mushroom + macetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,529 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Mushroom + white peppertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together648 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl butyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms
Provide the bulk of the flavour and, once dried, the powder itself.
Onions
Add savoury depth and sweetness as they cook down with the mushrooms.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note to the powder.
White pepper
Adds a mild, sharp heat that rounds out the seasoning.

The step that matters

Simmering until all liquid has evaporated. Mushrooms release a lot of water, and any moisture left in the mixture will delay drying and encourage mould. Stirring or shaking prevents the solids from scorching on the pan as the liquid reduces, which would make the powder taste bitter.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, onion, mace):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, onion, mace. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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