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To Stew Mushrooms

A mushroom stew simmered with anchovy, small birds, spices, wine, butter, flour, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

To Stew Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the mushrooms as for pickling and wash them thoroughly.

  2. Place the mushrooms in a saucepan with the anchovy, doves, nutmeg, mace, whole pepper, and salt.

Stew and finish

  1. Let them stew in their own juices until tender.

  2. When ready to serve, remove the spices and add 2 tablespoons of white wine and some of the mushroom liquor.

  3. Bring to a gentle boil, then stir in a little butter, a little flour, and 2 tablespoons of cream.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

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

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms
Form the main body of the stew and release their own juices to cook in.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the finished sauce.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smoother, more body-filled sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and a softer, rounder texture to the finished stew.

The step that matters

Stirring in the flour and cream after the gentle boil. Flour needs to be cooked in hot liquid to thicken fully and lose its raw taste, while cream can split or curdle if it is boiled hard. Keeping the boil gentle protects both the thickening and the smooth texture.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, anchovy, nutmeg, pepper, white wine, butter, flour):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, anchovy, nutmeg, pepper, white wine, butter, flour. 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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