Name: Stewed Mushrooms
Ingredients: Mushrooms; Water, stock, or milk; Pepper; Coarse sea salt; Flour; Cream or butter; Buttered toast or rice boiled in vegetable stock

Why it works: Milk and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Stewed Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Peel and rinse the mushrooms, then cut off the ends of the stalks.
Stew the mushrooms gently in water, stock, or milk until tender, adding pepper and coarse sea salt to taste.
Thicken the gravy with a little flour and let it cook well, stirring carefully.
Before serving, stir in a little cream or butter.
Serve on buttered toast or as a side to rice boiled in vegetable stock.

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.

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.

Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + ricetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,515 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mushroom + milktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,231 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).