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Mushroom Powder

A dried powder made from sautéed 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 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 the mushrooms in a pan over medium heat without water.

  2. Add the onions, mace, and white pepper.

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

Dry and store

  1. Spread the mixture on trays in a 300°F (150°C) oven until completely dry.

  2. Once dry, grind the mixture into 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 + 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
Provide the main earthy flavour and bulk of the powder.
Large onions
Add moisture and savoury sweetness that deepens as they cook down.
Ground mace
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour to the powder.
Ground white pepper
Adds mild, sharp heat and aroma.

The step that matters

Simmer and shake until the liquid evaporates. Stirring and shaking keeps the mixture from sticking and scorching while moisture leaves. Scorched mushrooms and onions turn bitter and dark, spoiling the flavour of the powder.

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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