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Cooking mushrooms concentrates their flavor and brings out notes of sweet earthiness from the Maillard reaction taking place. However, their high moisture content prevents mushrooms from caramelizing easily or quickly. The trick is to cook mushrooms slowly until they release all their moisture.

Here's how:

Slice, quarter, or mince your mushrooms - the same method works for any type of cut.

Heat a few teaspoons of oil in a pan set over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the mushrooms and stir them so the pieces are evenly coated with oil. You should hear the mushrooms sizzling.

Continue cooking the mushrooms, stirring them every few minutes to make sure they don't burn. After a few minutes, you'll notice a sheen of moisture over the surface of the mushrooms and in the bottom of the pan. This is the liquid being expelled from the mushrooms (see below). Add a pinch of salt if they don't seem to be releasing the liquid.

Continue cooking and stirring occasionally until all the moisture has evaporated and the pan is dry. At this point, the mushrooms will start to color. When they have all turned deep golden and reddish-brown, they are done and ready to eat!

This whole process should take roughly 10 minutes for 10 ounces of mushrooms. Don't forget to taste the mushrooms throughout the cooking process so you can see how the flavor changes.

If cooking mushrooms in combination with other vegetables, you have two options. One way is to cook the mushrooms separately and then re-add them at the end. The other way is to cook the mushrooms along with other vegetables that have long cooking times or that can hold up to long cooking.

For our typical base of onions, mushrooms, and red peppers, we usually cook the onions until barely translucent, then add the mushrooms, and then add the peppers when the mushrooms are almost done.

Related: Hey! You Can Wash Mushrooms!

(Images: Emma Christensen for the Kitchn)