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 ↓
Stewed Mushrooms
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel the mushrooms and cut off the stems.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Stew and finish
Place in a saucepan or skillet with the butter and enough cream or milk to cover.
Cover the pan and stew for about 15 minutes, keeping it covered to retain flavor.
Remove from heat and gradually stir in the beaten eggs.
Serve in a covered dish.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Mushroom + creamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,500 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh mushrooms
- Form the main body of the dish and release moisture that mingles with the cream.
- Cream or rich milk
- Provides the liquid and richness in which the mushrooms gently stew.
- Beaten eggs
- Stirred in off the heat to thicken the sauce gently and give it body.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the stewing liquid and mushrooms.
The step that matters
Stirring in the beaten eggs. Adding egg after removing the pan from heat, and stirring gradually, lets the egg thicken the sauce gently. Over high heat, egg proteins can curdle and turn grainy.
“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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