Why it works: Mushroom and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,632 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol, which smells allspice, anise. The science ↓
Mushroom Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter slightly and mix it with the flour.
Add the water, lemon juice, and sauce to the mixture.
Slice the mushrooms and add them to the sauce.
Finally, add the wine, preferably sherry, and stir well.
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.
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Mushroom + winetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,632 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).
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Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,157 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Mushroom + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sauce + flourtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,078 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, wine, sauce, flour):
- Plumfits better
- Grapefits about as well
- Avocadofits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, wine, sauce, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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