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Mushroom Powder

A dried mushroom powder made by roasting and grinding fresh mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and mace 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 the mushrooms

  1. Peel the mushrooms and wipe them clean of grit and dirt, then remove the black fur.

  2. Discard any worm-eaten mushrooms.

Cook and dry

  1. Place the mushrooms and other ingredients in a stewpan without water.

  2. Shake over a clear fire until all the liquid evaporates, being careful not to burn them.

  3. Arrange the mushrooms on tins.

  4. Dry them in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

Make and store the powder

  1. Pound them to a fine powder.

  2. Store the powder in small dry bottles, cork the bottles well, and seal the corks.

  3. Keep in a dry place.

Serve

  1. Add the powder to gravy just before serving.

  2. Bring the gravy to a boil.

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. Clove + macetop 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 main body and savoury flavour of the powder as their moisture cooks off.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aromatic depth as they cook down with the mushrooms.
White pepper
Adds a mild, sharp heat and aroma to the dried powder.

The step that matters

Shake over a clear fire until all the liquid evaporates. Mushrooms release a lot of water, and sugars and proteins in them can scorch once the liquid is gone. Keeping the heat clear and the mushrooms moving drives off moisture evenly without burning, which would make the powder bitter.

Swap the white pepper

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

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

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