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Sauce

Brown Mushroom Sauce

A savory sauce made with butter, vegetables, ham, flour, stock, mushrooms, and beef extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fannie Merritt Farmer · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Brown Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Cook butter with vegetables and ham until brown.

  2. Add flour and, when well browned, add stock gradually.

  3. Strain the mixture.

Make the mushroom stock

  1. Clean mushroom stems, break them into pieces, cover with water, and cook slowly until stock is reduced to one-third cup.

  2. Strain the mushroom stock.

Finish the sauce

  1. Add the strained mushroom stock to the sauce with beef extract and seasonings.

  2. Just before serving, add mushroom caps peeled, cut in slices lengthwise, and sauté in butter for five minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1139Calories
70 gProtein
42 gFat
115 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Beef100g cooked250
Pork100g cooked242
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

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

By Fannie Merritt Farmer. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Mushroom + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Browns with the vegetables and ham, adding nutty flavour and fat for the sauce base.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the butter, giving body and a browned, toasted flavour.
Mushrooms
Supply the earthy flavour of the sauce through both the stems' stock and the sautéed caps.
Brown stock
Forms the liquid of the sauce, carrying savoury flavour into the thickened base.
Beef extract
Adds concentrated savoury, meaty flavour to deepen the sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the flour in the butter. Flour must cook until well browned before the stock is added. Raw flour tastes pasty and thickens poorly, while properly browned roux gives the sauce its colour, nutty depth and smooth body.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, ham, flour, mushroom, beef, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, ham, flour, mushroom, beef, 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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