Why it works: Butter and mushroom 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 ↓
To Mold Quenelles with a Spoon, Either Plain, Filled or Rolled in Flour
Ingredients
Directions
Select two large, thin iron soup spoons. Heat one spoon in hot water.
Fill the hollow center of the other spoon with forcemeat. Smooth the top with a knife dipped in tepid water.
Remove the quenelle with the hot spoon, sliding it beneath the forcemeat.
Place the quenelle in a buttered sauté pan without turning it over.
If filling, prepare montglas and thicken it with brown sauce. Roll into small pieces.
Make a small hole in the forcemeat with your finger, insert the montglas, and cover with more forcemeat.
Smooth the surface and remove the quenelle with the hot spoon to the sauté pan.
Poach the quenelles by adding hot water to the pan beside them and heating until boiling.
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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Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Mushroom + saucetop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,480 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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