Comment · Sat, January 2, 2021 · ND Owner
1:1 Mushroom Extract vs Raw Mushroom Weight
Original post in this thread
TheOptimizzzer · 6 points
Curious is anyone knows the approximate weight conversion from actual mushrooms to the extract powders? Just looking to do some rough cost comparisons as well as recipe measurements when using something like the shiitake powder in cooking.
Since we’re just talking 1:1 extracts I would assume we’re basically just subtracting the water weight and the extract should be ~5-10x more concentrated than raw?
Thanks!
What they were answering
Direct reply to the original post — see the thread post above.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · ND Owner
Raw? Ohh man, that's pretty much impossible to answer. That's because a raw mushroom will have varying amounts of water weight. Also, each mushroom is going to be different. The structure of shiitake is much different than lion's mane or chaga, for instance. So it is hard to give a precise answer. However, you are likely not looking for a precise answer, and more want to get a general idea. I will attempt to make it easy to visualize.
So fresh mushrooms are about 85-95% water weight. This means that the vast majority of weight of a freshly picked mushroom is going to be the water content. Our 1:1 mushrooms are put through a water bath "extract" at 80*C to break down the chitin in the cell walls, then dehydrated and powdered to less than 10% moisture content. So the process of taking the raw mushroom and making it into a powder brings the water content down from a range of about 85-95% to less than 10%. Most of the time it is around 5% in the final powder. So if you think of it that way, to get 1 gram of 1:1 powder you need to use 10-20 grams of raw mushroom.