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Quintessence of Mushrooms

A concentrated mushroom liquid made by mashing mushrooms and boiling the resulting liquid.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Quintessence of Mushrooms

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Draw out the liquid

  1. Sprinkle salt over the mushrooms and let them sit for 3 hours.

  2. Mash the mushrooms and strain off the liquid the next day.

Reduce the essence

  1. Pour the liquid into a saucepan and boil until reduced by half.

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

What each ingredient does

Flap or button mushrooms
Release the flavorful liquid that becomes the essence and supply its savory, earthy taste.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the mushrooms by osmosis and seasons the resulting liquid.

The step that matters

Boil until reduced by half. Boiling evaporates water and concentrates the flavor compounds in the liquid, so the essence becomes intense. Boiling too hard or too long can scorch the liquid or make it overly salty, so watch it closely as it thickens.

“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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