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Mushroom Powder

A dried mushroom seasoning made by simmering mushrooms, onions, mace, and white pepper until all liquid evaporates.

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

Prepare

  1. Wash the mushrooms to remove grit and dirt.

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

Cook

  1. Place mushrooms in a stew pan over heat without water.

  2. Add onions, mace, and white pepper.

  3. Simmer and shake until all liquid evaporates.

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

Large mushrooms
Form the main bulk; they release their own moisture, which is cooked off to concentrate their savory flavor.
Large onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they soften and cook down.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavor.
White pepper
Adds a sharp, earthy heat that complements the mushrooms.

The step that matters

Simmering until the liquid evaporates. The mushrooms must release and then drive off their own moisture gently. Once the liquid is gone, the solids dry and can scorch quickly, so the heat and shaking need watching to avoid burnt, bitter flavor.

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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