Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
Mushroom Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the roux
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
Stir in the flour and cook until it turns dark brown.
Add the liquid and finish
Add the stock and stir until it boils.
Pour in the liquid from the mushrooms and let the mixture simmer for 5 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper, then serve with roast or braised beef.
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.
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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Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mushroom + flourtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,253 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they 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
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and carries the flour to form a roux.
- Flour
- Starch thickens the sauce once it is cooked into the melted butter and liquid.
- Stock
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which the roux thickens as it boils.
- Mushrooms
- Contribute earthy flavor through the liquid released from the can.
The step that matters
Cooking the flour until dark brown. Flour starch thickens best when only lightly cooked. Cooking it to dark brown builds nutty, roasted flavor but weakens thickening power, so the sauce may need more roux to reach the same body. Stir constantly to avoid scorching.
“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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