How To Use Magic Mushrooms In The Kitchen

Mushrooms are a common and much-loved ingredient in kitchens around the world. With a variety of flavours and textures, and capable of being eaten raw or cooked into soups and sauces, there’s a lot of scope when it comes to cooking with mushrooms.

But what about cooking with magic mushrooms? Granted, they’re not famed for their delicious flavours or culinary potential, but that’s not to say they don’t have a place in the kitchen. What’s more, even if you struggle to believe they have the potential to improve a dish, rest assured that a dish has the potential to improve them!

What are the benefits of cooking with magic mushrooms?

There are pros and cons to cooking with psilocybin mushrooms. Before we get into the benefits, there’s one potentially major drawback to consider—it will have some negative impact on the strength of your trip. If you make mushroom chocolate, this will be minor and is nothing to worry about. If you cook a full meal, though, be prepared for the trip to be mild.

With that out of the way, the benefits of cooking shrooms are:

• Mask the taste—this is the big one
• Counteract nausea
• A more gentle experience (some individuals prefer this)
• A potential way to microdose

How does cooking affect magic mushrooms?

In terms of flavour, most would probably agree that mixing shrooms with other, tastier foods is a good move and goes a long way to improve the taste. So in that sense, cooking will have a great effect on shrooms.

But as has been said, potency will be reduced when you mix psychedelic mushrooms and truffles with other foods. A general rule: the more filling the food, the greater the reduction in potency.

Heat, psilocybin, and potency

When cooking with psilocybin-containing mushrooms, you have to be careful about heat. Psilocybin, the main psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms, begins to break down at temperatures over 72.5°C. So it’s important that you keep temperatures lower than usual when working with shrooms.

Even when it comes to making magic mushroom tea, you can’t put them straight into boiling water or you risk destroying them. You have to let it cool first.

Choosing the right ingredients

Whether you’re using mushrooms or magic truffles, in either case, there are a few ingredients that are a good starting point for experimentation:

• Ginger: This root is fantastic for masking other flavours, as it is very pungent itself. But it serves a second purpose too. Ginger is good for calming nausea, consequently making it a good addition to a psychedelic drink or snack.
• Acid: Lemon, lime, vinegar, or any other acidic ingredient will convert the psilocybin in your mushrooms into psilocin. Usually, this conversion is catalysed by stomach acid. The body cannot absorb psilocybin, and so it must be converted into psilocin first for it to have an effect. Doing this out of the body is said to make the come-up stronger and faster, resulting in a more powerful trip. Lemon tek is the classic way to get as high as possible from psilocybin mushrooms. But beware, psilocin breaks down at an even lower temperature than psilocybin, so keep things cool if you go this route.
• Sugar: This can help to fuel you and somewhat balance the trip. But it’s worth being aware that consuming sugar speeds up the metabolisation of the psychoactive chemicals in shrooms, and could make your experience shorter.
• Chocolate: This is a common addition to magic mushrooms and truffles. The Aztecs used to mix their mushrooms with honey and cacao for a delicious, psychedelic treat. It also has little negative impact on the potency.
• Honey: Another common ingredient. In fact, “blue” mushroom honey is a great way to store and consume your mushrooms. Though, be aware that despite being famous for going blue, it’s actually a sign that the psilocin is oxidising—it’s breaking down.

How to dose magic mushrooms in cooking

Dosing can be tricky when cooking with shrooms. The more food you add, the higher you can afford to dose the shrooms—but don’t be silly.

If you’re experienced with psychedelic mushrooms and truffles, just go with your instinct and experiment. However, if you’re new to them, there are a few things you can do.

Use a dosage calculator

Our magic mushroom dosage calculator can help you find the right dose for you. Put in your weight, whether you have shrooms or truffles, and whether they’re fresh or dry. After that, specify how strong you want your trip to be, and it will suggest a dose for you.

Start low and slow

While raw mushrooms eaten on an empty stomach can kick in very quickly, mushrooms consumed with food can take much longer—sometimes over an hour or more. Therefore, it’s important to exercise patience before you munch down on more, thinking that you’re not going to get high.

Another thing to be aware of is that it can be hard to distribute mushrooms evenly, so some portions may be more potent than others. Grinding the mushrooms into a fine powder can help to mitigate this.

If you’re inexperienced, start low and go steady. Better to wish you’d taken more than be scared off for life.

How to use magic mushrooms in the kitchen

There are a lot of magic mushroom recipes out there, but here we’ll give you a rundown of some general tips and tricks when cooking with fresh and dried mushrooms. From there, you can either follow a more in-depth recipe, or let your creativity blossom and head straight for the kitchen.

Fresh magic mushrooms

Fresh shrooms can actually be pretty tasty. At the very least, they don’t taste that bad. Given that, you’re probably best off working with their freshness, rather than denying it.

They work well thrown in with salads, where they’ll be one of many refreshing ingredients—and one of one psychedelic ones! Otherwise, perhaps cook up a tomato sauce or a pesto, and throw either whole or cut-up fresh mushrooms in right at the end, once it’s cooled a little.

Fruit and fresh mushrooms can go well together. Some say that blueberries are a particularly good complement to a mouthful or shrooms—and they’re very good for you. You can go even further and mix fresh shrooms with yoghurt, honey, and blueberries for a delicious and healthy snack.

Dried magic mushrooms

Dried shrooms taste significantly worse than fresh ones, and so you probably don’t want them lurking whole in a salad or mixed in with your yoghurt.

With dried mushrooms, chopping or grinding them and hiding them in a dish will make them much more palatable. As with fresh ones, a sauce is an easy option. Just be sure to let them sit for a little once you’ve added them, as this will allow them to rehydrate a bit and blend in. Better that than a dusty mushroom powder permeating your dish.

Dried mushrooms are also the perfect candidates for mushroom chocolate. Melt some chocolate and pour it over a dish of ground shroom powder. If you can, distribute it evenly so you have some idea of how much is in each portion. And there’s no need to be conservative; throw anything you like in with them. Salt, chilli, lime zest—anything that might go with chocolate will also mix well with shroom chocolate.

Should you cook magic mushrooms?

This depends on what you want. If you want the most powerful, most profound trip possible, then no. The less that’s in your stomach, the stronger your trip will be.

But not everyone wants mind-blowing trips every day, and so cooking with shrooms can be a great way to moderate the experience and have some fun. It becomes an even better option when you consider that it’s possible to totally mask the flavour and texture. Some people don’t mind it; others hate it.

For those who really can’t bear the taste of shrooms, cooking them into something delicious will get the trip off to a much more comfortable start, and lead to an all-round better experience.

Max Sargent

Max has been writing for over a decade, and has come into cannabis and psychedelic journalism in the last few years. Writing for companies such as Zamnesia, Royal Queen Seeds, Cannaconnection, Gorilla Seeds, MushMagic and more, he has experience in a broad spectrum of the industry.

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