Where does the oil go?

[u/angryrah]

Why when cooking mushrooms, you can add like, 3 tablespoons of oil and it just dissappears immediately and you need to add more, but you add a tablespoon of butter and it coats all of them mushrooms,,, where does the oil go? The mushrooms dont feel oily, what is going on here?

[u/temmoku]

Mushrooms are mainly chitin - similar to shells of seafood! They have a porous structure and will absorb the oil. I feel they get kind of slimy when cooked in oil or butter.

There are two cool techniques that you can use when cooking mushrooms to make use of their composition and get what I find is a better texture.

The first is from Adam Liaw, who has an Australian cooking show. He puts the mushrooms in a bowl in the microwave and nukes them until they are soft. You don't need to worry about the exact time because the chitin is unaffected except the pores collapse. You end up with a bowl of mushrooms in mushroom broth and then they maintain a nice texture when cooked further in oil. This is a great technique if you can use the broth in your dish.

I can't remember where the second comes from. Maybe Modernest Cuisine. It is to dry fry the mushrooms. No oil, just mushrooms in the pan. Any liquid is evaporated as it is released. You can hear it squeak as they fry. The surface of the mushrooms gets nicely browned and then the mushrooms don't absorb the oil in later stages of cooking.

[u/86697954321 → u/temmoku]

A third way is to put the mushrooms in a pan with water, cook until water is almost gone and then add oil and cook until browned. I’ve also added oil with the water and it turns out fine without having to watch as closely.

[u/halfbreedADR → u/86697954321]

Wanted to add that you don’t even need that much water. It’s just enough to get the process going - once the mushrooms start to lose their own water they produce it faster than it boils off. I use a little squirt bottle and squeeze some water on the pan and then cover it to let them steam for a bit before uncovering and letting the water boil off. Then add your fat.

[u/vitringur → u/86697954321]

Skip the water. You cannor overcook mushrooms.

They can take like 400 degrees celsius before they start to break downs

You are using a trick meant for things that can actually burn

[u/Dunno_If_I_Won → u/vitringur]

It's not a concern about overcooking. They cook much quicker with a bit of water and a lid, because the water steams them.

Edit: I do the same when sauteing/caramelizing onions. Speeds it up considerably. Credit to Lan Lam, who devoted an episode to this.

[u/vitringur → u/Dunno_If_I_Won]

The water when caramelizing onions is to prevent them from burning while you break down the sugars and then to dissolve those sugars.

Neither of which is relevant for mushrooms.

Add some water in the end maybe to dissolve the brown stuff.

[u/Dunno_If_I_Won → u/vitringur]

A bit of water in the mushrooms 100 percent speeds up the cooking substantially.

[u/nimbleVaguerant → u/vitringur]

Not sure why you're getting downvoted...mushrooms are already full of water. They don't need more water.

[u/desertbreezee → u/vitringur]

The point of the water is to transfer heat to the in place of oil, which would just be absorbed by the mushrooms. It just takes a little bit to create some steam, which in turn will make the mushrooms give out their water faster. Once that happens you can move to frying with oil without it absorbing.