Home cooks seeking to achieve the rich umami flavour found in restaurant mushroom dishes have been given guidance by culinary experts. Chantelle Nicholson, chef-patron of Apricity in London, highlights the importance of heat, fat, and salt to cook out the significant water content in mushrooms.
Tomás Gormley, chef-owner of Cardinal in Edinburgh, suggests that many home cooks may not be using enough salt, recommending 1.5% of the mushroom's weight, applied early to draw out moisture. This creates a concentrated, flavourful liquid as it reduces.
Nicholson also advises selecting the right mushroom variety for the dish. For sautéing, she recommends chestnut, shiitake, or blue/grey oyster mushrooms due to their lower water content, cooked over a high heat with salt, oil, and optional herbs like thyme or bay leaf.
Alternative techniques include Buttons Mira's method of 'sweating' mushrooms in a dry, lidded frying pan without oil, and Alice Zaslavsky's 'wet-frying' approach, where mushrooms bubble in water with condiments before oil is added for caramelisation. For roasted mushrooms, high heat, salt, and oil are again key, with chestnut mushrooms and hard herbs like rosemary suggested for a nutty flavour.