How to maximise the umami in mushrooms | Kitchen aide

Whether you sizzle, sweat, wet-fry or oven-cook, enhancing the savoury flavour of your mushrooms will depend on the variety, says our panel of fun guys How do I cook mushrooms at home so they have th e umami you get in restaurant dishes? John, by email For Chantelle Nicholson, chef-patron of Apricity in London, boosting the savoury side of ’shrooms comes down to three main things. First, they hold a lot of water, so “you need to cook that out of them, so heat is super-important, as are fat and salt”.

Tomás Gormley, chef-owner of Cardinal in Edinburgh, adds that he can “almost guarantee” that John isn’t using enough of the latter: “As a rule, I use 1. 5% of the weight of whatever I’m seasoning. With mushrooms, especially, season early, before they hit the pan, to draw out their moisture. That resulting mushroomy water then cooks the mushrooms while it’s reducing and concentrating the flavour. ” But there are so many varieties of mushrooms out there, and they all behave in different ways, so John needs to be using the right ones for the job. “If you’re making a soup, puree or paté, field, portobello or button mushrooms are fine,” Nicholson says. “But if you’re looking for a delicious sauteed mushroom, say, ideally you need something with less water…