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Mushrooms En Caisse

Mushrooms en Caisse is a dish of mushrooms cooked in a buttered paper case with herbs and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mushrooms En Caisse

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the mushrooms lightly and cut them into pieces.

  2. Place the mushrooms in buttered paper cases.

  3. Add a bit of butter, parsley, green onions, shallots, salt, and pepper.

Grill and serve

  1. Grill the cases over a gentle fire.

  2. Serve the mushrooms in the paper cases.

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. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + shallottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,431 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

Mushrooms
Form the main body of the filling and release moisture that bastes them as they cook.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and helping the mushrooms brown lightly.
Shallots
Add a mild, sweet onion flavor that mellows gently during cooking.
Green onions
Contribute fresh, sharp onion aroma that softens slightly over heat.

The step that matters

Grill over a gentle fire. Mushrooms are mostly water, so high heat can scorch the paper and dry the filling before it cooks through. A gentle fire lets the mushrooms steam in their own juices and butter while the paper stays intact.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, butter, parsley, shallot, pepper. 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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