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Mushroom Sauce, Fowl, Boiled, with

A sauce of sautéed mushrooms, ham or bacon, shallot, parsley, thyme, mace, pepper, salt, egg yolks, and breadcrumbs, baked and served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 9,057 recipes mention both. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mushroom Sauce, Fowl, Boiled, with

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Skin the mushrooms, wash them, drain them, and wipe them dry.

  2. Cut the stems to within ¼ inch.

Make the seasoning

  1. Simmer the ham or bacon, shallot, parsley, thyme, mace, pepper, and salt in a little butter for 5 minutes.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the egg yolks.

Bake and serve

  1. Grease a flat baking dish with butter and fill the dish with the mushrooms.

  2. Top with the seasoning mixture and dredge the mushrooms with browned breadcrumbs.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 15 minutes.

  4. Serve hot with brown sauce around the mushrooms.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Flap mushrooms
Form the main body of the dish, holding the seasoning as they cook.
Egg yolks
Bind the seasoning mixture and help it set in the oven.
Ham or bacon
Adds savoury, salty flavour and fat to the seasoning.
Browned breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust on top through browning in the oven.
Shallot
Adds mild aromatic onion flavour to the seasoning.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks after removing from heat. Egg yolks thicken when heated, and if the seasoning is too hot when they go in, they can scramble and turn grainy instead of forming a smooth, binding mixture.

Flavor stand-ins for the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, ham, shallot, parsley, thyme, pepper, butter):

  1. Marjorambetter flavor fit
  2. Winter savorybetter flavor fit
  3. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, ham, shallot, parsley, thyme, pepper, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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