Mushrooms don't have to be mushy
When I was a kid I had this thing with certain textured foods–I didn’t like anything mushy. Mushrooms were a common culprit, so were avocados. These foods have a slimy quality that made them hard for me to palate even if I liked the flavor. Avocados were relatively easy to avoid since, aside from taco night we didn’t use them all that often in my house growing up. On the other hand, mushrooms happen to be one of my dad’s favorite foods and I can’t tell you how many times he made me taste mushrooms over and over to prove that I liked the flavor. He’d sneak them into soups or pasta sauces and even as I’d pick them out I knew the flavor they imparted to the overall dish made a difference, and a difference that I liked.
Years passed and my dad’s persistence forced me to confront the fact that mushrooms were a food I needed to learn to like. It worked. Today, I love incorporating mushrooms into my cooking and I’m not turned off by the texture. That said, I’ve recently started preparing mushrooms in a way that I think even kiddo Luce would have tolerated–crispy browned mushrooms.
Crispy browned mushrooms require patience but the flavor you get on the other end is worth the wait. The goal with this technique is to develop a deep meaty flavor by giving them long enough in the pan to cook out most of their water. Water is the enemy of browning which is why recipes call for patting meat dry before cooking or why there’s an emphasis on not crowding a pan if you want to caramelize veggies or brown meatballs.
As the water cooks out of the shroomies their texture will change and they will begin to brown. If you go too far, the mushrooms have a tendency to become a bit leathery so we’re trying to find that sweet spot where the outside has crisped, but they haven’t turned into mushroom jerky. Here’s how I do it.
Ingredients
Cremini or portabella mushrooms (or other mushroom of your choice)
Olive oil
Salt
Optional additions
Onion
Garlic
Herbs (especially earthy meaty ones like sage, rosemary, thyme)
Chili (fresh or dried)
Kale, chard or other hearty greens
Butter
Method
The method is very simple: saute mushrooms until their water cooks off and they brown. In the last few minutes of cooking add aromatics or other ingredients as desired. You can read the steps below for a more detailed explanation.
1. Slice your shrooms while you preheat a pan on medium heat with a generous amount of oil. A cast iron or other heavy bottomed pan is perfect for this because we’ll get even heat distribution. Thinner pans or non stick pans are more prone to hot spots. Since we’re cooking the mushrooms for a while, hot spots will make it more likely that some shrooms burn before others get golden.
2. Add the shrooms and toss them in the oil. Add a big pinch of salt. Some recipes say you shouldn’t salt mushrooms early in the cooking process since it’ll draw out their moisture. Whether or not that’s true, we don’t care. We’re cooking the moisture out of these bad boys anyway and we want well seasoned shroomies. Once the shrooms are tossed in oil and seasoned with salt, let them be.
3. Let the mushrooms cook down, stirring rarely. Here’s where patience comes in. Cooking the moisture out of the mushrooms can take anywhere from 10-20 minutes depending on how hot your pan is and the type of mushrooms you are using (shiitake mushrooms for example, have less water than creminis so they’ll brown much faster). Resist the urge to constantly stir the mushrooms, just move them around so they all have a chance to get direct heat and then let them sit for a bit.
Here the mushrooms are 5 minutes into cooking. They are still plump and there’s still a lot of water to be cooked off.
After 10 minutes you can see some of the mushrooms are beginning to turn a beautiful golden brown. We’re nearly there.
4. Over time the mushrooms will darken in color and at a certain point you’ll start to see the mushrooms begin to turn golden. This is exactly what we want, enough water has been cooked off that browning has begun. The mushrooms will caramelize more quickly now and you may have to stir more frequently to keep the mushrooms from going too far.
After 15 minutes these mushrooms are right on the edge. They are nearly all golden brown and have started to crisp up as the last of their water content cooks off. Much longer and you’ll have mushroom jerky!
5. When the mushrooms are on the edge of golden and not yet burnt, either remove from the heat or add any other ingredients you’ve prepared. I added a quarter of a yellow onion, two cloves of garlic, dried red chili flakes and some chopped sage. In the last 30 seconds I added a tablespoon or two of butter.
The addition of onion, garlic, sage, red chili and butter halts the browning and livens up the mushroom party.
The end result is a mushroom dish that has mega umami and mushroomy flavor. With this technique you trade the more familiar, but sometimes melt-in-your-mouth sometimes slimy mushroom texture, for a stronger mushroom flavor and chewier, slightly crunchy texture. It’s probably not for everyone but it’s my new favorite thing.
The main takeaway for me is that if you want mushrooms to brown they need to be alone in a pan. The moment you add other ingredients you’re adding more water content to the pan and you’ll delay or even prevent browning entirely. This method is good on its own, but it’s also a great way to start a stew or soup and pack tons of umami flavor into the finished dish. If you’ve ever been turned off by mushy mushrooms, give this technique a try.