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Soup

Fresh Mushroom Soup

A creamy soup made with fresh mushrooms, cream, stock, butter, flour, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Colville, Jessie Henderson. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 41,516 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fresh Mushroom Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Run some cold water over the mushrooms — do not let them stand in it.

  2. Peel, cut off stems, and scrape them.

  3. Cut in small pieces.

Make the soup

  1. Add to the stock and boil fifteen minutes.

  2. Make a roux of the butter and flour (do not let it brown).

  3. Add this to the stock and mushrooms and stir until it thickens.

  4. Season with the salt and pepper.

Serve

  1. At serving time turn in the heated cream.

By Colville, Jessie Henderson. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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.

  1. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

White stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the mushroom flavour.
Butter
Carries flavour and fat, and forms the base of the roux.
Flour
Thickens the soup with the butter as a roux, giving it body.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture at the end.

The step that matters

Make the roux without browning it. Flour cooked in butter thickens best while pale. Browning changes its colour and flavour and weakens its thickening power.

“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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