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Mushroom Powder

A dried mushroom powder made by simmering mushrooms, onions, mace, white pepper, and cloves, then drying and grinding.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,400 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Mushroom Powder

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Wash the mushrooms thoroughly to remove grit and dirt.

  2. Scrape out the black part and discard any worm-eaten mushrooms.

Cook

  1. Place mushrooms, onions, cloves, mace, and white pepper in a stew-pan over medium heat without water.

  2. Simmer and shake until all the liquid evaporates, being careful not to burn them.

Dry and store

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

  2. Once dry, grind the mixture to a powder and store 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 + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

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

  4. Mushroom + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,663 recipes

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

  5. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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 powder, with their own moisture released and driven off during cooking.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aroma that carries into the dried powder.
White pepper
Adds a mild, warm heat and aroma to the finished powder.
Mace
Contributes a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the dried powder.

The step that matters

Simmering until all liquid evaporates. Mushrooms release a lot of water and scorch easily once it is gone. Stirring and shaking keeps them from sticking and burning, which would give the powder a bitter taste. Drying only works well when the mixture is free of surplus moisture.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, onion, mace, clove. 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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