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Saute Mushrooms

Sautéed mushrooms cooked in butter, seasoned with salt, pepper, and optional sherry, served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,176 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Saute Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Wash the mushrooms and remove the stems.

  2. Peel the caps using a silver knife.

  3. Cut or break the caps into pieces.

Cook

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the mushroom pieces and cook for 10 minutes.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and sherry if desired.

Serve

  1. Serve the sautéed mushrooms on toast.

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.

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 + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + sherrytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms
Main ingredient; they release moisture and brown as they cook, forming the dish's savory flavor.
Butter
Fat that carries heat evenly across the pan and adds richness and browning flavor.
Sherry
Optional acidic, aromatic addition that adds depth to the mushrooms.

The step that matters

Cooking the mushrooms until browned. Mushrooms are mostly water. If the pan is crowded or too cool, they steam instead of browning, so they stay soft and pale and lose flavor. Cooking in a single layer over medium heat lets moisture evaporate so the surface can brown.

“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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