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 ↓
Mushrooms on Toast
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat.
Add the minced steak and cook until the juices are extracted, about 5-7 minutes.
Season with salt and cayenne, then tilt the pan and press the meat with a spoon until dry.
Remove the meat and add the mushrooms to the pan, adding more butter if necessary.
Toss the mushrooms for a moment, then pour over hot toast.
Optionally, add a splash of sherry before serving.
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).
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Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mushrooms
- Provide the main vegetable body and earthy flavour of the topping.
- Raw minced steak
- Supplies meaty flavour and juices that are cooked down in the pan.
- Butter
- Carries heat and adds richness and browning to the pan.
The step that matters
Pressing the meat until dry. Cooking the steak until its juices are extracted and then pressing it dry lets the meat brown rather than steam. Browning builds deeper flavour, and removing excess liquid keeps the topping from becoming soggy on the toast.
“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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