Mushroom Duxelle

[Jim]

I have recently, for whatever reason, been having trouble with my mushroom duxelle. Here is my method... tell where I am going wrong.
I remove the 'gills' under portabellas and set them aside. I stem shiitakes and set aside. I food-process the portabellas, shiitakes and domestics and set aside. In a large stock pot, I melt butter and saute some shallots and a bit of garlic. I add the processed mushrooms and cook... and cook... and cook. My problem... It never seems to tighten/dry out. I always seem to have an excessive amount of moisture. I have tried adding bread crumbs after cooking to soak up the excess moisture, however it damages the quality of the product.
Any suggestions? Thanks!

jim - try leaving the mushrooms whole and saute them with shallots 'til they're dry - then pass them through the grinder on the fine or medium dye- after adjust the seasoning -you may or may not have to dry htem more -but my experience has been no.

[chefjohnpaul]

Originally posted by Jim:
I have recently, for whatever reason, been having trouble with my mushroom duxelle. Here is my method... tell where I am going wrong.
I remove the 'gills' under portabellas and set them aside. I stem shiitakes and set aside. I food-process the portabellas, shiitakes and domestics and set aside. In a large stock pot, I melt butter and saute some shallots and a bit of garlic. I add the processed mushrooms and cook... and cook... and cook. My problem... It never seems to tighten/dry out. I always seem to have an excessive amount of moisture. I have tried adding bread crumbs after cooking to soak up the excess moisture, however it damages the quality of the product.
Any suggestions? Thanks!

Jim, the texture of portabellas and shiitakes will be different when cooked dry but should eventually dry out, you may be using too much butter leaving the mushrooms oily and seperated after the moisture is evaporated. If this is not the problem try a couple of things, use straight domestic white mushrooms (champignon de Paris) instead and see if you get the same results
or go half and half with the other mushrooms. You can also add a little cream instead of breadcrumbs into the mixture to help bind, but again watch your fat content so that you will have better drying/binding.

[Jim]

Lou, John Paul,
Thanks for the input! I actually used both pieces of advice; I left the mushrooms whole and only used domestics. At first they appeared to swim(!) in thier own moisture and then, magically, they dried out. I used about 1/4# of butter to a 10# box of domestics and seemed to do the trick.
Thanks!