Bake the most delicious mushrooms with this secret ingredient
Mushrooms: you either love them or you find them dreadful—especially the texture. I absolutely love them. For example, as part of a good pasta, but also simply as a side dish with a simple meat-and-potatoes-and-vegetable meal. Cooking mushrooms isn’t particularly difficult, but making them genuinely delicious? Giving them that extra ‘oomph’? That takes something extra. As it turns out, pickle juice is the surprising secret ingredient for cooking truly delicious mushrooms.
Pickle juice gives the mushrooms a slight tang, which is delicious. That acidity is subtly present in the background. Don’t they absorb all that juice, I hear you thinking? Aren’t they known for that, and isn’t that why you shouldn’t wash them under the tap? Well, it’s actually not that bad. Mushrooms are already made up of 80 to 90% water. So they can’t absorb all that much more. This means you can absolutely wash mushrooms, and you can also cook them very well in pickle juice.
Cooking mushrooms in pickle juice
Of course, you can cook button mushrooms, but a mushroom mix may be even more delicious. That way, you get different textures and sizes mixed together. Delicious! Pickle juice with dill is especially tasty here. You can make it yourself (add dill for flavor). Or simply use the juice from a jar of supermarket pickles. Besides pickle juice, there are more flavorings that make your dish extra delicious. Think butter and shallots.
- Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, stirring, until the butter is golden brown.
- Add one-third of the shallots to the frying pan and cook, stirring, until soft.
- Add one-third of the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown.
- Add one-third of the pickle juice and cook until fully absorbed. Transfer the mushrooms to a serving dish and keep warm.
- Repeat the process twice more with the remaining butter, olive oil, mushrooms and pickle juice. Season the mushrooms with salt and pepper and serve.
All things pickle
Does using pickle juice in dishes sound familiar? It definitely works. Recently, we also recommended the Pickle Martini: a Martini made with pickle juice. It’s an ideal way not to pour that juice straight down the drain, but to make delicious use of it instead. Naturally, it can be served alongside your pickle-and-mushroom mix.
Also read:
- How to get that annoying lid back onto the mushroom container
- The tips for crispy, truly delicious mushrooms
- 15 utterly ridiculous cooking tips from your parents
Recipe: Food52
