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Dried Mushrooms

A method of drying mushrooms in a gentle oven, then storing and reheating them in cold gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and veal are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,446 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Dried Mushrooms

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle 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.

  2. Cut off the stems.

  3. Scrape out the fur.

  4. Arrange the mushrooms singly on tins or dishes.

Dry and store

  1. Dry them in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C).

  2. Store the dried mushrooms in tin canisters away from damp.

Rehydrate and cook

  1. Place the dried mushrooms in cold gravy.

  2. Slowly heat until tender.

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. Mushroom + vealtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Mushroom + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,500 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Mushroom + flourtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Veal + creamtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, 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 substance, which shrinks when dried and softens again when heated in gravy.
Veal gravy
Supplies moisture and savoury flavour as the dried mushrooms soften in it.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, rounder texture to the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the mushrooms.

The step that matters

Slowly heat until tender. Gentle, slow heating lets the dried mushrooms rehydrate evenly and soften without the gravy boiling, scorching or thickening unevenly.

“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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