Mushroom Ketchup

Instructions

1. We need to gently wipe these mushrooms off. We don’t want to rinse them off or wash them, because that added liquid would dilute our final flavors. Chop them into small pieces.

2. Put the mushrooms in a container that can sit overnight and add a couple spoonfuls of salt to draw the juices out. In addition to that salt, we’re going to add a couple of bay leaves. We’re going to mash it up and smoosh these mushrooms down, then we’re going to cover it and then let it set for about 10 minutes.

3. After 10 minutes check on your mushrooms to make sure they’ve already started reducing. Cover and set aside overnight in a safe place.

4. Once the mushrooms have completely soaked, add in 1 chopped up onion, the zest of 1 lemon and 1 tablespoon of finely grated horse radish. We’re going to use a ¼ teaspoon of cloves, a pinch of cayenne and about ½ teaspoon allspice.

5. The last ingredient we need is a ¼ – ½ cup of cider vinegar. We’re going to stir up all these things together and then put it over the fire and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.

6. Once it is done simmering allow it to cool a bit.

7. Once cool enough pour it through a squeeze cloth into another container and squeeze all the liquid out.

8. You can save both the liquid, but also the leftover dried mushrooms. You can use the dried mushrooms as is or grind it up to flavor other recipes.

9. There are some amazing complex flavors in this. You get the salt first, then some of the other spices, and the earthiness of the mushrooms. Some very complex and wonderful flavors.

Transcript of Video:

1. Many different 18th century recipes and a lot of writings refer to something called ketchup. Now ketchup in the 18th century wasn’t so much like this as it is more like this.

2. This is done simmering now. I’ve let it cool a little bit but now it’s time to pour it off and I’ve got our milk pan and I’ve got a squeeze cloth here. I’m going to pour this in here to let it cool.

3. Once this is cooled off, we’re going to take that cloth and bundle it up and squeeze all the liquid out.

4. There’re some amazing complex flavors in this. You get the salt first, then some of the other spices, the earthiness of the mushrooms, very complex, very wonderful flavor. We’re going to cork this up. We’re going to bottle it, cork it, and save it for our future recipes. So when you’re done with squeezing out the mushrooms, you don’t want to get rid of that. You don’t want to throw that out. That is especially good stuff. You dry that and you can either leave it like it is or you can grind it up. Some of this stuff you can sprinkle it almost like salt. It is really, really good stuff.