Why it works: Mushroom and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
Beefsteak Smothered with Mushrooms
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Wash the mushrooms and remove the gills from the beefsteak mushrooms, then slice them.
Bake and serve
Place the mushrooms in a baking pan, sprinkle with salt, add butter, and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.
Broil the beefsteak until nearly done, then place it in the pan with the mushrooms, covering it with some mushrooms.
Return the pan to the oven for 10 minutes, then serve immediately.
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.
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Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beefsteak mushrooms
- Form the main body of the dish and soften into a tender, juicy base as they bake.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, helping the mushrooms brown and taste savoury.
- Beefsteak
- Provides the meaty centre of the dish, browned under the broiler before joining the mushrooms.
The step that matters
Broil the beefsteak until nearly done. Broiling browns the surface quickly, and the meat finishes cooking when it returns to the oven. Stopping at nearly done leaves room for that second heat, so the steak stays juicy rather than dry.
“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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