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Mushrooms Under Bells

Mushrooms sautéed in butter, simmered with cream, served on toast and baked under bell peppers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Mushrooms Under Bells

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cook the mushrooms

  1. Sauté mushrooms in butter until tender.

  2. Add salt, pepper, and cream; cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Assemble

  1. Place slices of toast on dishes and cover with mushrooms.

  2. Pour the sauce over the mushrooms.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover with bells and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 15 minutes.

  2. Serve without removing the bells.

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

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Mushroom + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,500 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms
Provide the main body and savory flavor, softening as they cook and releasing moisture into the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for browning the mushrooms and a rich, savory flavor.
Cream
Forms a rich, thickened sauce that coats the mushrooms and softens the dish.
Slices of toast
Provide a sturdy base that soaks up the sauce and adds a contrasting texture.

The step that matters

Sauté mushrooms in butter until tender. Mushrooms hold a lot of water. Cooking them until tender lets that moisture evaporate and the mushrooms brown slightly, so the cream sauce stays thick rather than watery.

“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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