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Canned Mushroom Sauce

A sauce for canned mushrooms made with stock, butter, flour, tomato sauce, onion, bay leaf, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Colville, Jessie Henderson. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Canned Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mushroom sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine 1 cupful of brown stock, 1 tablespoon of butter, 1 tablespoon of flour, 1 can of mushrooms, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, and a little chopped parsley.

  2. Melt the butter; add flour and cook until smooth.

  3. Slowly pour in the liquor from mushrooms and the brown stock; season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

  4. Stir until perfectly smooth and thickened; add the mushrooms, cut in half, and cook just long enough to heat the mushrooms thoroughly.

Make tomato sauce No. 1

  1. In a saucepan, combine 1 can of tomatoes, 1 large slice of onion, 2 bay leaves, 1 tablespoon of flour, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of butter, dash of Worcestershire sauce, teaspoon of salt, and dusting of cayenne.

  2. Stew the tomatoes with the bay leaf, sugar, salt, pepper, and onion until tender.

  3. Melt the butter and rub into it the flour; let bubble until well cooked.

  4. Add the strained tomatoes and season with the dash of sauce; stir until perfectly smooth.

Make tomato sauce No. 2

  1. In a saucepan, combine 1 can of tomatoes, 1 cupful of brown stock, 2 tablespoonfuls of flour, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 2 tablespoonfuls of butter, and 1 teaspoon of salt.

  2. Cook the tomatoes with the sugar, salt, pepper, and bay leaf about ten minutes, or until quite tender.

  3. Rub through a fine sieve and add the stock.

  4. Melt the butter, add onion, and let it brown a little; rub in the flour and stir until smooth.

  5. Pour the strained tomato stock over the thickening and continue to stir until smooth and quite thick.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

699Calories
16 gProtein
14 gFat
129 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Parsley + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the roux and adds richness and flavor to the sauces.
Flour
Thickens the sauces by forming a roux with the butter.
Brown stock
Forms the liquid base that gives the sauces savory depth.
Mushrooms (in the method)
Supply the main flavor and texture of the mushroom sauce.
Tomatoes (in the method)
Provide body, acidity and color to the tomato sauces.

The step that matters

Stir the roux until smooth before adding liquid. Stirring flour into hot butter and cooking it briefly cooks out raw starch taste and lets the liquid blend in without lumps. Adding stock too fast or without stirring causes lumps that stay in the finished sauce.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, lemon, parsley, sugar, tomato, sauce):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, lemon, parsley, sugar, tomato, sauce. 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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