Why it works: Mushroom and butter 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 ↓
Fresh Mushrooms
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mushrooms
Peel the mushrooms and soak them in cold water until ready to cook.
Drain the mushrooms and place them in a double boiler.
Make the sauce
Add the butter, salt, and pepper to the mushrooms.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour, catsup, and Worcestershire sauce to create a thickening.
Add the thickening to the mushrooms and do not add any water.
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.
-
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
-
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,078 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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
- Fresh mushrooms
- Form the body of the sauce and release their own moisture as they cook.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the mushrooms.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the mushroom juices.
- Catsup
- Adds sweetness and acidity to the sauce.
- Worcestershire sauce
- Adds savoury, aromatic depth to the sauce.
The step that matters
Add the thickening to the mushrooms and do not add any water.. Flour must be mixed smoothly into the mixture so it does not clump. Because the mushrooms release their own liquid, the flour thickens that juice rather than extra water, which would dilute the sauce and weaken its body.
“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.
More mushroom sauce recipes
You might also like
Mushroom Soup60 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.