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Mushrooms Au Gratin

A baked dish of mushrooms topped with a browned breadcrumb and butter‑flour‑milk sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mushrooms Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Peel the mushrooms and cut off their stalks.

  2. Place the mushroom heads in a buttered fire-proof dish.

  3. Peel and wash the stalks, then dry and chop them.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter.

  2. Add the flour and stir in the milk.

  3. Bring to a boil.

  4. Add the chopped stalks, parsley, onion, pepper, and salt.

  5. Simmer until the sauce thickens.

  6. Strain the sauce and add some browning.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the sauce over the mushrooms.

  2. Sprinkle with browned breadcrumbs.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 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. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  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

Mushrooms
Form the main body of the dish and release moisture that mingles with the sauce as it bakes.
Butter
Provides fat for the roux and carries flavour through the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce when cooked with the melted butter.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which sets to a creamy texture as it thickens.
Browned breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping during baking.

The step that matters

Simmer until the sauce thickens. Flour needs enough gentle heat and time to swell and gelatinise, or the sauce stays thin and runny and will not coat the mushrooms.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, butter, flour, milk, parsley, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, butter, flour, milk, parsley, pepper. 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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