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Mushrooms in Bread Cases

A savory dish of sautéed mushrooms in a creamy sauce served in bread cases.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mushrooms in Bread Cases

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mushroom sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and allow it to brown slightly.

  2. Add the flour and rub it smooth.

  3. Stir in the cream and cook until thickened.

  4. Add the mushrooms and simmer gently on the cooler part of the stove for 8 to 10 minutes.

Fill and serve

  1. Season with salt and pepper, then turn the mixture into the prepared bread cases and serve.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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
Browns slightly to add a nutty aroma and richness to the base.
Flour
Thickens the cream into a smooth sauce as it cooks with the butter.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, and thickens into the body of the sauce.
Mushroom caps
Provide the main flavour and tender texture of the filling.

The step that matters

Cooking the cream until thickened. Flour needs to be cooked in the hot fat and liquid to lose its raw taste and thicken properly. Stirring smooth while the cream heats prevents lumps, and the sauce must be fully thickened before the mushrooms go in so the filling holds together in the cases.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, cream, butter, flour, bread):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, cream, butter, flour, bread. 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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