Trippy Cuisine: Learn How to Cook With Magic Mushrooms

Magic mushrooms aren’t as tasty as gourmet mushrooms like Chanterelle and King Oyster. They often have cheesy and muddy notes — not particularly appealing flavors.

Cooking with shrooms is an excellent way to create great-tasting dishes that induce a psychedelic experience. It isn’t complicated, but there are a few things to think about — you don’t want to destroy the psilocybin and kill its psychedelic properties.

In this article, we’ll cover the essentials of cooking with shrooms. We’ll discuss the best cooking methods, how to get the most out of them, and the kinds of psychedelic dishes you can expect to make.

Why Bother Cooking With Magic Mushrooms?

So why bother cooking with magic mushrooms?

1. Better Taste

Well, we’ll talk about the most obvious first — to improve the taste. Eating the mushrooms definitely isn’t for everyone. They can taste muddy, cheesy, and funky — and that doesn’t sit right with many people.

Some people can’t get past the unique taste, and the thought of chewing up and swallowing dried shrooms makes their stomachs turn. Cooking magic mushrooms into small meals or flavorful drinks can cover up the taste and make the whole consumption experience far more pleasant, leading to our next point.

2. Better Trip

Enjoying the consumption of magic mushrooms may lead to a better psychedelic trip. Without being left with a nasty musky taste in your mouth, you’ll be in good stead for a positive start to your experience.

The taste of mushrooms is enough to send people spiraling into a negative trip. Drinking a tasty smoothie, a nice cup of warm tea, or munching on a slice of pizza is a far more pleasant way to sink into it.

3. Less Nausea

Some people experience nausea and occasionally vomiting after consuming magic mushrooms. The little psychedelic shrooms don’t sit right on some people’s stomachs, and that’s okay. Cooking the mushrooms into a tasty dish or a flavorsome drink can be enough to eliminate the feelings of nausea.

4. Gentler Onset

The next benefit (to some) is the fact that the experience is more gentle. When you cook magic mushrooms with food, the come-up is slower and less intense. Some people prefer this, and it’s a great benefit for beginners that perhaps don’t know what to expect after eating magic mushrooms.

Contradicting the last point, certain recipes can increase the intensity and create a faster come-up. Tea, in particular, is fantastic for this. The effects of mushroom tea can be felt in as little as five minutes after consumption and can be more intense than eating the shrooms plain.

5. More Control

Drinking magic mushrooms, whether in the form of a smoothie or shroom tea, can give you more control over the trip.

Although the effects can be more sudden, you can control how quickly you peak by drinking a mushroom brew slowly. Sipping the drink can allow you to drift into a trip; once you’ve reached your desired feeling, you can stop drinking to level it out.

6. Easy to Microdose

Finally, cooking with shrooms can be fantastic for those of you that want to microdose psilocybin. For example, making a mushroom chocolate bar and carefully working out the dosages allows you to eat small squares that contain sub-perceptual doses. This is a much more enjoyable way to microdose psilocybin than chewing on some dirty mushrooms.

Does Cooking Decrease the Potency of the Shrooms?

You may have heard that cooking magic mushrooms causes the active ingredient psilocybin to degrade. Many people avoid cooking with psilocybin-containing mushrooms because of this reason.

Yes, it is true that heat will cause the psilocybin to diminish. However, as long as you know what you’re doing, the shrooms should be just as potent on a pizza or in a tea as they are raw.

Psilocybin begins to degrade at temperatures above 167℉ (75℃). The key word here is starts.

Magic mushrooms can take temperatures upwards of 212℉ (100℃) without too much of their potency being lost. However, if the shrooms are cooked for too long over the 167℉ (75℃) mark, a significant amount of psilocybin can be lost.

So, does this mean you can’t cook up your favorite dish with a psychedelic twist?

Absolutely not.

You can cook most dishes with psilocybin-containing mushrooms; you just have to be smart about how you cook them. The key to ensuring your magic mushroom meals are as potent as the raw shrooms is to monitor the temperature closely and to limit the amount of time the mushrooms are exposed to potentially psilocybin-threatening conditions.

Let’s take a look at how to ensure you create the most potent meals with your precious shrooms without sacrificing what matters — the trip.

How to Create Potent Mushroom Meals

To make sure you get the absolute most out of the mushrooms you have, it’s important to use either a no-heat or low-heat method of cooking.

Magic mushrooms can take some heat without losing too much potency. Some have even cooked them into brownies with great success. However, here are a few tips to help ensure you don’t degrade any of that precious psilocybin.

1. Limit the Shroom’s Exposure to Heat

When making magic mushroom meals, it’s best to add the dried mushrooms, either whole or powdered, toward the end of the cooking process. This limits the mushrooms’ exposure to high heat, thus ensuring none of the psilocybin degrades.

Some recipes call for the mushrooms to be baked, sauteed, or simmered in a sauce. This is okay, but it’s best to prepare the bulk of the dish first, cook it to an extent, and add the mushrooms in as late as possible.

Recipes requiring shrooms to be added early in the cooking process should have shorter cooking times. If you’re cooking magic mushrooms at a higher heat (anything over 212℉), keep the cooking time under the 30-minute mark.

2. Use Extractions

Use heat in your favor to extract the psilocybin.

Oil extractions or a simple “tea” (water extraction) can be made and added to the dish later in the cooking process — this works really well for sauces, soups, or broths.

By doing this, you can remove the organic matter (the mushrooms) because the majority of the psilocybin will be in the liquid. This can improve the taste dramatically.

Whole or powdered mushrooms can also be simmered, providing the temperature is kept low, and the cooking process is kept under the 30-minute mark.

Using these techniques helps limit psilocybin degradation, ensuring the maximum amount of psilocybin is transferred into the dish.

There are several different ways that mushrooms can be cooked and hundreds of tried and tested methods to implement shrooms into different recipes. If you’re interested in bringing psychedelics into the kitchen, I’d definitely recommend purchasing a shroom cookbook such as “The Psilocybin Chef Book” by K. Mandrake and Virginia Haze.

How To Calculate Magic Mushroom Doses for Cooking?

Calculating doses when cooking magic mushrooms can be a little tricky. Here are a few tips.

1. Taking Shrooms With Food

When you’re eating shrooms raw on a semi-empty stomach, you know what to expect. However, the more food you add, the less you’re going to feel. This means the larger the dish you cook, the more magic mushrooms you’re going to need to induce a psychedelic trip.

It’s always good to add more mushrooms to food dishes that are high in calories. This will ensure you don’t get disappointed after eating your meal. Of course, don’t go crazy, but adding an extra gram or two is usually a wise decision.

2. Taking Shrooms With Liquid

I must add that you should never add more than your desired raw shroom dose to liquids. Mushroom tea and smoothies are a different ball game compared to solid food. You’ll actually find that the mushrooms seem more potent when in liquid form — especially in tea. Adding an extra gram or two to a tea will send you on an intense trip.

It’s also worth noting that magic mushrooms take far longer to kick in when consumed with food. When shrooms are consumed on an empty stomach, the effects can be felt within 20 to 30 minutes. However, when eaten with a meal, it can take over an hour to feel anything.

3. Wait Before Taking More

If you do cook up a shroom dish, don’t get disheartened if you don’t feel anything in the usual time — and definitely don’t take any more until at least two hours after you’ve eaten the meal.

4. Divide the Shrooms Evenly

Another thing to consider is the fact that it can be hard to distribute the mushrooms evenly throughout each portion of a meal. This is especially true if you’re cooking up pasta for four people, for instance. Some portions may be more potent than others.

Grinding the mushrooms into a fine powder is a great way to ensure the dose is spread evenly throughout the dish.

5. Use a Dosage Calculator

Unfortunately, it’s hard to give an exact “dose” of shrooms for cooking. Doses are something that must be gauged and learned as you begin your psychedelic chef journey. We can give you a rough idea as to how much you should be using per portion in drinks and solid meals though.

Here’s a typical dosage calculator for magic mushrooms. If you’re cooking a calorie-rich meal, you may want to increase the dosages slightly to suit your needs:

This may all sound a bit daunting. It’s true — there are far more factors that can affect how intense your trip is when you consume shrooms in a meal. However, after a bit of experience in the kitchen, you’ll start to gauge what’s needed.

Magic Mushroom Recipe Ideas

Although this certainly isn’t a cookbook, here are a few rough recipes to inspire you. Hopefully, these will give you an idea of what’s possible.

Below, I’ve devised six popular shroom recipes for you to read through. Whether you’re looking for a potent tea that’ll produce intense effects, a tasty pizza to take the stress of the week off, or an indulgent pasta to trip into the weekend with, we’ve got you covered.

1. Magic Mushroom Tea

Magic mushroom tea is a fantastic way to consume psilocybin mushrooms. Making tea is a simple task, and as long as you follow a few simple steps, you’re guaranteed to produce a potent, fast-acting psychedelic brew. Consuming shrooms this way reduces nausea, improves flavor, and means you don’t have to consume any organic matter.

The key to making a good magic mushroom tea is to let the boiled water cool slightly before introducing the mushrooms. The longer you leave the mushrooms in the hot water, the better. Using a thermal flask is the best way to ensure your liquid stays warm while the tea brews.

You can add things such as ginger and decaffeinated tea or a herbal tea of some kind to the magic mushroom brew to improve the flavor and help reduce nausea.

Follow these steps, or read our guide on making shroom tea for more detailed instructions.

Boil a kettle of water and let the water cool slightly.
Roughly grind the desired amount of dried magic mushrooms and add them to the water in a thermal flask; you can add your other chosen ingredients at this point too.
Let the brew sit for up to one hour before straining the organic matter and consuming the remaining liquid.

2. Magic Mushroom Smoothies

Smoothies can be a great way to consume magic mushrooms — the possibilities are endless.

The best combinations involve relatively strong flavors. This ensures the taste of the shrooms is covered up well. Using milk of some kind or a variety of strong-tasting fruits and juices is the best way to go. One of the more popular smoothies that cover the mushroom taste well is the non-alcoholic psychedelic Pina Colada Smoothie.

Here’s how to make a magic mushroom Pina Colada Smoothie:

Mix the ingredients below in a blender at your desired ratios and blitz until smooth.

Fresh or dried psilocybin mushrooms at your desired dosage
Pineapple juice
Pineapple chunks
Orange juice
Coconut milk
Honey

3. Magic Mushroom Pizza

Magic mushroom pizza is a favorite psychedelic dish, especially for people new to cooking with psychedelic mushrooms. It’s pretty difficult to get this one wrong, to be honest, because all you need to do is top your pizza with some psilocybin-containing mushrooms.

You can simply buy a premade pizza or make your own dough and sauce if you’re handy in the kitchen. Whichever method you choose, it’s very simple to add magic mushrooms to it. This is a great way to cook a psychedelic meal for multiple people.

The most important thing to consider when cooking a magic mushroom pizza is the temperature and cooking time. When you cook a pizza in the oven, you’ll need to set the oven to over 400℉ (204℃) — far too hot for psychedelic fungi.

You can get around this issue by cooking the pizza until it’s 80% done without the shrooms. Then remove the pizza from the oven and lower the temperature to 210-300℉ (100-150℃). Make sure to let some heat out of the oven first.

At this point, you can add the mushrooms to the pizza. Bake it at this lower temperature for five or six minutes. If you’re using dried mushrooms, this will allow them to soften up. If you’re using fresh mushrooms, it will cook them slightly, improving the texture.

Pizzas are for sharing right?

If you’re making a pizza for four people, you can weigh up four separate doses of mushrooms. Each dose can then be placed on the pizza. You can make note of where each of the four slices will be and place each dose on them — this way, every person partaking in the psychedelic pizza will get a slice with identical doses.

Adding flavorful ingredients such as pepperoni will help cover the taste of the magic mushrooms. If you like culinary mushrooms, adding something like portobello to the pizza can almost trick your mind into thinking there are no nasty-tasting mushroom toppings.

4. Magic Mushroom Tacos

Tacos are a great way to eat magic mushrooms. They’re fairly light, which means the mushrooms will have more effect, and you can pack them with flavor to mask the taste of the fungi.

The best way to make tacos is with ground meat and plenty of taco seasoning, and chopped onion. These strong flavors help mask the taste of the shrooms, and the fine texture of the meat allows you to hide the shrooms completely.

Again, the main thing to think about is the heat. You certainly don’t want to cook your shrooms at the same time as the meat. Instead, they should be added at the end and mixed through with the taco filling (and after draining any fat).

Here’s how to make magic mushroom tacos:

You can adjust the ratios and amounts of this recipe to suit your taste and the number of servings you need.

Dice one gold onion
Prepare the vegetable filling of your choosing (lettuce, tomato, peppers, etc.)
Season half a pound (200 g) of ground meat with your chosen taco spice blend
Saute the onions in a pan in a small amount of oil until translucent
Remove the onions from the pan and cook your meat on medium to high heat
Once the meat is almost cooked, drain any excess grease and add the onions back in
Turn the heat off and stir in your chosen dose of dried and ground magic mushrooms
Stir the meat and mushrooms vigorously while the pan cools
You can now serve your psychedelic taco meat in shells, wraps, or a salad bowl
Enjoy with a splash of salsa

If you’re making tacos for more than one person, or are afraid you won’t eat it all, simply divide the meat and add individual doses as needed.

5. Magic Mushroom Pasta Sauce

This is a quick and easy dish to prepare and cook. Mushrooms and pasta go well together — a creamy mushroom sauce with a hit of pancetta or bacon pairs wonderfully with spaghetti or tagliatelle.

The strong creamy flavors of mushroom pasta are perfect for covering up the taste of magic mushrooms.

Due to the high calorie and carbohydrate content of pasta, you should try to control your portions here. Don’t go cooking up the same amount of pasta as you would eat for dinner. A small bowl will provide enough flavor to mask the shrooms without filling your stomach up completely.

Here’s how to make a simple creamy magic mushroom pasta:

You can adjust the recipe below to suit your taste and the number of servings required.

Boil a pan of water and season with salt
Add pasta of your choosing and cook to your taste
Dice up one or two cloves of garlic
Slice up three or four porcini and/or portabello mushrooms
Finely chop pancetta or bacon (if you choose to add meat)
Cook the meat in a medium-hot pan until crisp and remove
Add your culinary mushrooms and cook until golden
Introduce the chopped garlic and a small knob of butter to the pan
Pour in half a cup of heavy cream and your crispy bacon or pancetta
Season with pepper and oregano
Simmer gently until thickened
Lower the heat and stir in your chosen dose of dried ground magic mushrooms
Stir the sauce for one to two minutes
Add the pasta to the pan, mix, and serve with a dash of grated Parmigiano

6. Magic Mushroom Chocolate Treats

Magic mushroom chocolate bars are excellent psychedelic treats for those with a sweet tooth. They’re also super-easy to make with the basic method below.

The important part is getting the dosage correct. For one standard 200-g chocolate bar, you’re going to want to add at least seven grams of dried mushrooms — if you want to feel psychedelic effects after eating a single square. This way, you don’t have to eat it all at once.

Magic mushroom chocolate will last in the fridge for at least four months before the psilocybin starts to degrade or the chocolate starts to lose quality. In order to make sure your psilocybin chocolate bar doesn’t go rancid, you must ensure that the shrooms used in the cooking process are 100% dehydrated.

Ideally, you want a chocolate mold for this recipe. This will allow you to break off even squares from your finished bar, and it’ll look more impressive. If you don’t have chocolate bar molds, a small, non-stick tray will work well enough. However, dividing the bar up accurately once it has been set will be more difficult.

Here’s how to make a psilocybin chocolate bar:

Grind up your dried magic mushrooms into a fine powder (7 g or above for a 200 g chocolate bar)
Break up a 200-g store-bought chocolate bar into small pieces
Bring a half-filled saucepan of water to a boil
Place a glass bowl on top of the pan and add the chocolate. As the water boils it will heat the bowl and melt the chocolate
Once the chocolate has melted, allow it to cool slightly but not enough to set
Once the chocolate has cooled, add in your magic mushroom powder
Stir the liquid thoroughly to make sure the powder is evenly distributed. You’ll have to work fast here to ensure the chocolate doesn’t thicken up
Carefully pour the mixture into your chocolate mold or tray
Let your chocolate cool to room temperature and then place it in the fridge to set
Remove your chocolate bar from the mold and store it in foil. Enjoy!

How Long Can You Store Magic Mushrooms?

Without a doubt, the best way to store magic mushrooms is in a dehydrated state. Dry mushrooms that are jarred and stored in darkness will keep for years without going bad or losing potency.

Fresh magic mushrooms can be stored in the fridge but will last nowhere near as long as if they’re dried. Fresh mushrooms last for around the same amount of time as culinary mushrooms when stored in the refrigerator.

Before you dry your mushrooms or store them fresh in the fridge, it’s good practice to remove any dirt from them. This helps ensure they don’t become contaminated with bacteria, which also helps them stay fresher for longer.

In terms of cooked mushrooms, the storage times can vary greatly.

Teas can be stored for two or three days without issue. When you need to heat the brew up, do it slowly on a stove until the liquid has reached a reasonable temperature before the boiling point. It’s important not to re-boil the brew — this could be detrimental to the potency.

In terms of other dishes, it’s best to aim to eat them straight after being cooked. However, some dishes will keep in the fridge for a few days, providing the other ingredients inside the dish aren’t going to spoil easily.

If you need to reheat anything, keep the heat to a minimum and heat the dish up slowly.

Summary: To Cook or Not to Cook Magic Mushrooms

Cooking with magic mushrooms can be a great way to enjoy the psychedelic effects of the fungi without experiencing the unpleasant taste associated with them.

Cooking shrooms can be easy, but you must ensure that they aren’t exposed to too high a heat for too long. Overheating the magic mushrooms could destroy some, or all, of their potency. Don’t let this put you off, though. Cooking with shrooms can be very rewarding, and eating a tasty meal, drinking a nice cup of tea, or downing a smoothie can be a great start to a trip.

There are several dishes that can be made using magic mushrooms. We’ve mentioned a few popular recipes in this article, but the fun doesn’t stop there. The dishes that are possible to make are endless, and the only thing holding you back from creating something new and unique is your imagination.

Remember, when using magic mushrooms for cooking, get your dose right. Often, you’ll need more mushrooms when cooking to counteract the food going into your stomach. It doesn’t hurt to add more shrooms to your dish, but don’t go crazy, unless you’re looking for an intense trip.

Trippy Cuisine: Learn How to Cook With Magic Mushrooms

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