Name: Parmesan Fried Mushrooms
Ingredients: 1 lb small cremini mushrooms or button mushrooms, washed,dried,tossed in flour; 1/3 cup flour; 1/4 cup parmesan cheese; 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper; 1/2 teaspoon paprika; 3/4-1 cup beer or water or chicken broth; oil (for frying)

Why it works: Mushroom and parmesan cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,199 recipes mention both. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells apple, fatty. The science ↓

The recipe

Time3-5 minutes

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

1 lb small cremini mushrooms or button mushrooms, washed,dried,tossed in flour
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
3/4-1 cup beer or water or chicken broth
oil (for frying)

Directions

Make the batter

Stir together the flour, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, paprika, and beer, water, or chicken broth.

Fry

Heat the oil in a deep fryer, deep skillet, or whatever you like to fry in, to 325°F.
Dip the floured mushrooms into the batter and then set them gently into the oil.
Fry until browned, about 3-5 minutes.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Mushroom + parmesan cheesetop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together1,199 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
Mushroom + beertop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together127 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Parmesan cheese + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together5,322 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Mushroom + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together13,578 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Parmesan cheese + beertop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together37 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms: Provide the main body of the dish, cooking down into a tender, meaty bite inside the coating.
Flour: Dusts the mushrooms so the batter clings, and helps form a crisp, browned coating when fried.
Parmesan cheese: Adds savory, salty flavor and helps the coating brown as it fries.
Beer or water or chicken broth: Liquid that hydrates the flour into a batter that fries up light and crisp.

The step that matters

Keeping the oil at temperature. Oil at 325°F fries the batter crisp and browned. If the oil is too cool, the batter absorbs more oil and turns greasy, and if the mushrooms are wet, they will steam and splatter. Dry the mushrooms well before dipping.

“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.