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Little Creams of Mushrooms

A creamy mushroom sauce served over small game birds, garnished with boiled rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Little Creams of Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the birds

  1. Remove the gills from the birds and sew up the vents.

Make the soup

  1. Simmer the birds in broth and milk with onions, celery, sweet herbs, pepper, and salt.

  2. Once cooked, keep the birds warm covered with a cloth.

  3. Strain the broth and vegetables, then puree the onions and celery.

  4. In a pan, mix butter and flour over low heat, then add the puree and broth.

  5. Stir in the tomato puree, bring to a boil, and strain again.

  6. Finish the sauce with cream.

Serve

  1. Serve the birds topped with the sauce and garnish with well-boiled rice.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Birds
Provide the main protein, which cooks gently in the broth and milk to become tender.
Onions
Release sweetness and body into the broth when simmered and pureed.
Butter
Melts with the flour to form a roux that thickens the sauce and adds richness.
Flour
Forms a roux with the butter that thickens the sauce to a smooth consistency.
Tomato puree
Adds acidity, color, and savory flavor to the sauce.
Cream
Adds fat and smoothness to finish the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the puree and broth to the roux. Flour thickens only when it is cooked in fat and whisked into liquid smoothly. If the roux is too hot or the liquid is added all at once, lumps or scorching can form, so add the liquid gradually while stirring over low heat.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quail, mushroom, egg, onion, pepper, milk, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against quail, mushroom, egg, onion, pepper, milk, butter. 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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