Why it works: Mushroom and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Mushroom Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Clean and wash one quart of fresh mushrooms.
Cut the mushrooms in half.
Make the sauce
Put the mushrooms into a stew-pan with a little salt, a blade of mace, and a little butter.
Stew gently for half an hour.
Add half a pint of cream and the yolks of two eggs, beating them very well.
Keep stirring until the mixture boils up.
Serve
Put the sauce over fowls or turkeys, or serve it on a dish with a piece of fried bread first buttered then toasted brown, and just dipped into boiling water.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Mushrooms | 1/2 cup sliced (35g) | 15 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Mace | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
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Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
-
Mushroom + creamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,500 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
-
Cream + macetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,009 recipes
-
Mushroom + macetop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,529 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mushrooms
- Form the body of the sauce and release savory flavor as they stew.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky body to the sauce.
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the sauce as they heat, giving it a creamy consistency.
- Mace
- Adds a warm, aromatic spice note to the sauce.
The step that matters
Keep stirring until the mixture boils up. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently, but in hot cream they can curdle or scramble if left unstirred. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly so the sauce stays smooth and thickens properly.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, cream, bread, egg):
- Nutmegfits better
- Garlicfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, cream, bread, egg. 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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