Porcini Powder substitute

Best substitute

Dried Porcini, Ground Yourself

Use about 3 to 4 g dried porcini (a scant ¼ oz), ground and sifted for every 1 tsp powder

Best for dry rubs

Close match

The best fix is to grind your own: about 1/4 ounce of dried porcini, roughly a small handful of pieces, blitzed in a spice grinder makes 1 tablespoon of powder. If you have no porcini at all, dried shiitake powder swaps 1:1 with a brothier, less honeyed flavour, and 2 to 3 tablespoons of strained porcini soaking liquid replaces 1 teaspoon of powder in anything wet.

Other porcini powder substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Dried Shiitake Powder
Different taste
Use the same amount
The closest widely available alternative and a genuinely good one, because shiitake is even higher in the savoury compound that makes mushroom powder work.
What changes
What changes is the aroma: shiitake is brothier, slightly sweeter and has a faint sulphurous, almost bacon-like note, where porcini is woodsy, nutty and honeyed with a hint of pine. In a beef ragu or a rub the swap is barely noticeable. In a porcini risotto, where the aroma is the entire dish, you will taste that it is not porcini.
Best for
ragu and bolognese, beef rubs, braises, stocks and broths, gravy
Grind dried shiitake caps and discard the tough stems, or grind stems separately and use them in stock where the grit does not matter.
3Mixed Dried Mushroom Powder
Different taste
Use 1 ½ tsp mixed mushroom powder for every 1 tsp porcini powder
The cheap supermarket bags of mixed dried mushrooms and the jars of generic mushroom powder are usually built on milder species such as oyster, black fungus and cultivated shiitake, sometimes with a token amount of porcini.
What changes
Expect a general earthy savouriness with much less perfume, which is why you need more of it. Perfectly good where mushroom is a background note; thin where it is the headline.
Best for
soups, gravy, veggie burgers, stews, seasoning blends
Taste a pinch dry before you commit. Strength varies enormously between brands, far more than with pure porcini.
4Strained Porcini Soaking Liquid
Different texture
Use 2 to 3 tbsp strong strained soaking liquid for every 1 tsp powder
If you have dried porcini pieces but no grinder, soak them in just-boiled water for 20 minutes and use the liquid.
What changes
The flavour is authentically porcini, arguably more so, but it is water, which changes what you can use it in. Wonderful in risotto, braises, ragu and gravy. Completely unusable in a dry rub, a spice blend or anything you are dusting onto meat before searing.
Best for
risotto, braises, ragu, gravy, soups
Strain through a paper coffee filter or leave the bottom spoonful behind. Dried porcini almost always carries grit and it will ruin a sauce.
5Nutritional Yeast plus a Pinch of MSG
Taste and texture differ
Use 1 tsp nutritional yeast + a small pinch of MSG for every 1 tsp porcini powder
Delivers savouriness and nothing else, which is worth knowing before you use it.
What changes
It will make a mushroom-free dish taste deeper and better seasoned, but there is no woodsy aroma at all, and nutritional yeast adds its own nutty, faintly cheesy flavour and visible yellow flecks. Use it when the goal is simply more savoury depth, not when the recipe is trying to smell of the forest floor.
Best for
vegan gravies, soups, lentil dishes, pasta sauce
Blitz the flakes to a powder first if the dish needs to look smooth, and add the MSG only if you already keep it.
6Nothing, Plus a Fat and Cheese Boost (the honest option)
Different taste
Use Omit the powder; add 1 extra tbsp butter and 2 tbsp grated Parmesan for every 4 servings
Sometimes the truthful answer is that nothing reproduces the porcini aroma, and pretending otherwise makes a worse dish than accepting the gap.
What changes
In a risotto or a pasta, if you cannot get any mushroom product, do not fake it with paprika or bouillon. Add a little more butter and a little more aged cheese, which gives you richness and savouriness, and let the dish be a good buttery Parmesan risotto rather than a bad imitation of a porcini one.
Best for
risotto, pasta, polenta, emergency substitution
Not an option if the dish needs to be vegan or dairy-free, in which case use the shiitake or mixed mushroom route instead.

What is Porcini Powder?

Porcini Powder is Porcini powder, also sold as porcini dust or ground porcini, is dried porcini mushrooms milled to a fine flour and used by the teaspoon as a concentrated savoury and aromatic booster rather than as a mushroom in its own right.

Cooking tips

Volume is the trap. Roughly 1 ounce of dried porcini grinds down to about 4 tablespoons of powder, so a tablespoon of powder is a lot of mushroom. If a recipe calls for a tablespoon of porcini powder and you measure a tablespoon of dried pieces instead, you will end up with about a quarter of the flavour you wanted.
Porcini powder works by multiplication. It is rich in a savoury compound that dramatically amplifies the glutamates already in tomatoes, Parmesan, soy sauce and meat, so half a teaspoon in a bolognese does far more than half a teaspoon in a plain broth. Pair it with tomato paste or Parmesan for the biggest effect.
As a dry rub it is superb on steak, but dust it on thin and pat it into the meat. Because it is a flour-fine powder with sugars in it, a thick coating burns and turns bitter in a hot pan long before the steak is done.
Add it early in wet cooking so it hydrates and disperses. Stirred into a finished sauce at the last second it stays slightly gritty and the raw powder tastes dusty.
Store it in a small airtight jar away from light and buy or grind small amounts. The pine-and-honey aroma that makes porcini worth the money fades within a few months once it is ground, much faster than in whole dried pieces.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use dried porcini mushrooms instead of porcini powder?

Yes, and it is the best substitute, but grind them first and get the amount right. Around 3 to 4 grams of dried porcini, a scant quarter ounce, makes about a teaspoon of powder. If you cannot grind them, soak them in just-boiled water for 20 minutes and use 2 to 3 tablespoons of the strained soaking liquid per teaspoon of powder, but only in a dish where extra liquid is fine.

Can I use fresh mushrooms instead of porcini powder?

Not really, and this is the most common mistake. Fresh mushrooms are around 90 percent water and comparatively mild, so a whole pan of sauteed cremini contributes less concentrated flavour than a teaspoon of porcini powder, while adding a lot of moisture and bulk. If fresh mushrooms are all you have, brown them hard until they squeak and the pan is dry, which concentrates them as far as possible.

Can I just leave porcini powder out?

Yes. It is a booster, never a structural ingredient, so nothing will fail to thicken or set. The dish will taste flatter and less aromatic. Compensate with another savoury element such as a spoonful of tomato paste browned in the pan, a Parmesan rind dropped into the pot, or a teaspoon of soy sauce, and salt slightly more confidently.

Is porcini powder the same as mushroom powder or mushroom seasoning?

Not quite. Porcini powder is pure ground porcini and is prized for a specific nutty, piney aroma. Generic mushroom powder is usually a blend of cheaper species and is milder. Mushroom seasoning, sold in large pouches in Asian groceries, is mostly salt and MSG with a little mushroom, so it seasons rather than perfumes and you must cut the recipe's salt if you use it.

How much porcini powder should I use in a risotto or ragu?

Start with 1 to 2 teaspoons for four servings, added with the aromatics so it has time to hydrate and bloom. Porcini is assertive and easy to overdo; too much makes a risotto taste muddy and slightly bitter rather than perfumed. Taste as you go and remember you can always add more at the end dissolved in a spoonful of hot stock.

Related substitutes

More seasonings substitutes

Porcini Powder substitute

Other porcini powder substitutes

2Dried Shiitake Powder

3Mixed Dried Mushroom Powder

4Strained Porcini Soaking Liquid

5Nutritional Yeast plus a Pinch of MSG

6Nothing, Plus a Fat and Cheese Boost (the honest option)