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Mushroom Powder

A dried mushroom spice made by simmering mushrooms with onions, cloves, mace, and white pepper, then grinding into powder.

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. Wash the mushrooms thoroughly to remove dirt and grit.

  2. Scrape out the black parts and discard any worm-eaten mushrooms.

Make the mixture

  1. Place the mushrooms in a stewpan over heat without water, adding onions, cloves, mace, and white pepper.

  2. Simmer the mixture, shaking it occasionally, until all the liquid evaporates, being careful not to burn it.

Dry and grind

  1. Spread the dried mixture on tins or sieves.

  2. Dry the mixture in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

  3. Once dry, grind the mixture to a powder.

  4. Store the powder in small, tightly corked bottles in a dry place.

Use

  1. Add a teaspoonful of the powder to soups, gravies, or sauces just before serving, allowing one boil after adding.

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 of flavour and, once dried and ground, the concentrated powder.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and depth to the mixture as it cooks down.
White pepper
Adds a mild, sharp heat and aroma to the powder.

The step that matters

Simmering until the liquid evaporates. Mushrooms release a lot of liquid, and if it is not fully driven off the mixture stays wet and can scorch on the pan. Stirring or shaking helps the heat reach everything evenly so the powder dries cleanly without burning.

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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