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Mushroom Sauce

A creamy sauce made with mushrooms, butter, flour, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Simmer canned mushrooms for 5 minutes; if using fresh, simmer for 10 minutes.

  2. Cut up any large mushrooms.

Make the sauce

  1. Beat the butter until creamy.

  2. Mix in the flour until light and creamy.

  3. Add salt, pepper, and onion juice.

  4. Beat a little longer.

  5. Pour the hot milk into the mixture.

  6. Add the parsley.

  7. Place the saucepan on the stove.

  8. Stir until the sauce boils.

  9. Cook for 2 minutes.

  10. Remove the parsley.

  11. Serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps form a smooth base with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the milk, giving it body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it heats.
Mushrooms
Provide the main flavor and texture of the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir until the sauce boils. Flour thickens liquid only once it heats enough for its starch to swell. Stirring keeps the mixture smooth and prevents lumps from forming on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, butter, flour, pepper, parsley, milk):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, butter, flour, pepper, parsley, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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