Mushroom Stock, Everything You Need to Know and the Easiest Recipe

If you can boil water, you can make rich, umami-dense Mushroom Stock that can help boost your immunity and just all around make you feel better. Sip and savor Mushroom Stock all season long and use it to amp the health benefits of any recipe that uses broth or stock. Shall we?

Jump to:

• What is Mushroom Stock
• Difference Between Broth and Stock
• Health and Dietary Considerations of Mushroom Stock
• Ingredients You Need for Mushroom Stock
• What are the Best Mushrooms for Broth or Stock?
• Instructions for How to Make Mushroom Stock
• How to Store and Freeze Mushroom Stock
• How to Use Mushroom Stock
• FAQ
• Mushroom Stock Recipe

What is Mushroom Stock

Mushroom Stock is a simple stock made by simmering mushrooms with water for about an hour—though you can get to a pretty flavorful broth with just 15 minutes! It also has aromatic vegetables like garlic and onions to enhance the flavor and nutrient content.

The Mushroom Stock is great to use as a base for soups and stews, or in any recipe that calls for some version of "stock." You can sip on a steaming mug of Mushroom Stock straight up, as many do to support various aspects of health.

Difference Between Broth and Stock

Wait, so what's the difference between bone broth and stock? So glad you asked because they're kind of the same thing, made in similar ways, but different depending on the application.

This recipe is called "Mushroom Stock" because the cook time is on the longer side, and the resulting stock is in fact darker in color and very flavorful.

In regular cooking terms, a stock generally refers to a liquid that is deeper in color and richer in flavor. When made from meat bones, stock usually simmers for hours to extract more flavor from the bones, and sets into a gel texture when chilled. Stock is great for braises in which you want a thick braising liquid, sauces, and gravies.

Broth, on the other hand, is a liquid made from proportionally more meat and a few bones and simmered for a shorter period of time. The resulting broth is lighter liquid in both color and flavor. Broth is great as base for soups or for sipping.

As a side note, Bone Broth, confusingly enough, is actually more like a stock, and when it's called "bone broth," these days we consider it a liquid that has simmered for even longer than plain stock to truly extract as much collagen, glucosamine, and amino acids out of the bones.

Health and Dietary Considerations of Mushroom Stock

As printed, this Mushroom Stock recipe is:

• 100% plant-based, suitable for vegans
• vegetarian
• dairy-free
• gluten-free
• sugar-free
• keto- paleo- and Whole30 adaptable

Ingredients You Need for Mushroom Stock

Mushroom Stock is essentially two ingredients: 1) mushrooms and 2) water.

If you simmer just mushrooms and water, you will get a flavorful broth that's perfect to add umami to soups, braises, sauces, and gravy. However, you can greatly enhance basic mushroom stock's flavor by adding aromatic vegetables, herbs, and spices. This will make the stock into something drinkable right out of a mug, which is what you want to be doing all winter and maybe even year long.

Here are the ingredients you need:

• Water
• Mushrooms, fresh and dried
• Kombu, aka Japanese dried kelp
• Onions
• Garlic
• Salt
• Carrot and celery, optional
• Tamari, optional for extra salt and umami

What are the Best Mushrooms for Broth or Stock?

Though any kind of mushrooms, or mixture of mushrooms, will work in Mushroom Stock, my preference is for varieties commonly associated with Asian cooking like shiitake mushrooms, oyster, eryngii (king oyster), and maitake (hen of the woods). These are all pictured above.

In this recipe, I am using dried shiitake, dried maitake, and fresh cremini mushrooms.

Additional Ingredients Notes and Resources

• Fresh Mushrooms. My favorite mushrooms for stock are shiitake mushrooms and cremini mushrooms for their brown color.
• Dried Mushrooms. Dried shiitake mushrooms are some of the most umami-rich ingredients; I always have them on hand. You can find them in any Asian grocery store, or online.
• Water. Normally not listed as an ingredient in recipes, water gets a special highlight here because the kind of water matters for the best Mushroom Stock. Obviously use filtered water, and make sure it is COLD water.
• Sea Salt. I use this sea salt for every day seasoning.
• Tamari is Japanese-style soy sauce brewed without the use of wheat so it is gluten-free. Tamari and soy sauce are essentially interchangeable, though tamari has a slightly high-toned tartness to it. I use this brand, which is organic. For most soy-based products (soy sauce, tofu, soy milk, etc), try to buy organic or non-GMO, since soy beans are one of the crops that are more often sprayed with harmful weed-killing chemicals.
• Onions, garlic, and all other fresh herbs and produce from either the Santa Monica Farmers' Market on Wednesday, or Whole Foods Market.

Instructions for How to Make Mushroom Stock

I wasn't kidding when I said if you can boil water, you can make Mushroom Stock. Literally put everything in a large pot, bring to boil, then simmer. Once the broth has simmered out, just strain and cool.

Here are the high-level steps to make a deep dark umami-rich Mushroom Stock:

Pro Tips and Techniques for Mushroom Stock

• Wash Dried Mushrooms. Just rinse them off to get rid of any loose dirt or dust, since they're dried and might have been sitting around for a while.
• Use a Mix of Mushrooms. Use a mix of at least two mushrooms for a more interesting flavor. I always have dried shiitake mushrooms on hand, and also like maitake mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, and even common brown cremini mushrooms.
• Simmer, not boil. Except for the initial boil to get the pot up to temperature, maintain the temperature at a very gentle simmer. You simply cannot turn up the heat and boil it to make it faster.
• Don't overcook. Simmer Mushroom Stock for no more than 1 hour. Though chicken and beef bone broths get better and better with every hour that you simmer it—up to a point of course—the vegetables and especially dried mushrooms might turn the stock slightly bitter if cooked for too long.
• Add herbs very last. If you love the flavor of fresh herbs, add them in the last 10 to 15 minutes. Herbs need even less time than all those sturdy vegetables to cook. Toss them into the pot the last 20-30 minutes of the cook time, if at all.
• Skip the herbs. I leave herbs, spices, and seasonings out completely, so that the Mushroom Stock is a neutral flavor base to which I can add herbs and spices at the time I plan to consume it. As an example, broths and stocks cross cuisines and the flavor of thyme is great for a Mushroom Barley Soup now, but might taste weird in a Chinese Mushroom Hot Pot later.
• DO NOT PUT HOT STOCK IN THE REFRIGERATOR to cool down. The stock will make it too warm in the refrigerator, compromising the safety of the foods in there.

Tools and Equipment

• Stock Pot: I use a very large stock pot by this cookware company. It has a heavy bottom and easy-to-hold handles. Any large pot that fits the ingredients will do. A large Dutch oven is great for this.
• Slow Cooker: I have this 6-quart programmable slow cooker. If you are going to use a slow-cooker, I highly recommend getting/using a slow-cooker that has a timer or auto-shut-off so you can truly "set it, and forget it," which is kind of the point of a slow-cooker, imho.
• Stainless steel tongs
• Strainer
• Large bowls, one that fits within the other. I use both stainless steel and glass mixing bowls.
• Thermometer
• Quart sized mason jars
• Plastic sealing lids for jars. Get rid of those annoying two-piece metal lids that come with mason jars (unless you're doing actual canning) and get wide-mouth lids for the larger jars, and wide-mouth smaller jars
• Plastic storage containers: I keep a decent supply of these plastic quart (32 ounces) containers for any- and everything. The containers are technically "disposable," but they can be used a few times with hand-washing between uses. The best thing, though, is freezer-safe glass. Always make sure the stock is cool before pouring into any type of storage container.
• Large format ice cube trays. If you plan to make and freeze bone borth for the rest of your life, these "souper cube" trays specifically dedicated to broths and soups are great to have.

How to Store and Freeze Mushroom Stock

Refrigerator. You can keep Mushroom Stock in the refrigerator for 5 days. I like to use large mason jars with sealing plastic lids.

Freezer. You can freeze Mushroom Stock and keep for about 6 months. Here are a few ways to freeze Mushroom Stock:

• The way that works best for how I maintain my freezer is ladling Mushroom Stock directly into freezer-safe quart-sized bags, squeezing out all the air, sealing, and laying flat in the freezer until the broth freezes. Then I stand them up and line them up like thin books on a bookshelf. If you're looking to reduce single-use plastic, these are re-usable ziptop bags.
• Use large format ice cube trays to freeze Mushroom Stock into ½-cup or 1-cup servings, pop out the frozen cubes, and throw into a freezer-safe bag.
• Yes, you can put glass mason jars in the freezer. Just make sure to leave at least 1½-inch of air space at the top of the jar and freeze with the lid lightly closed. Once, the bone broth is frozen completely, you can close the lid completely. Make sure the keep the jars on freezer shelves that will hold the jars in place.

How to Use Mushroom Stock

Use Mushroom Stock the same way you would use any other bone broth. I always have grand plans to make something fancy with my Mushroom Stock, but end up with the same basic-is-best way, sipping it by the mugful with a few pinches of salt, ginger, and turmeric all winter long. Here are some more place Mushroom Stock shines:

• Pho
• Ramen
• Meatballs and Bok Choy in Ginger Miso Broth
• Enrich a Ginger Miso Soba Noodle Soup
• Turkey Vegetable Soup
• Deer Valley Turkey Chili
• Pot Pie with a Puff Pastry Crust

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