Why it works: Mushroom and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,580 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Fried Mushrooms and Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Heat a frying pan over medium heat.
Add the bacon slices and cook until clear and beginning to curl.
Transfer the bacon to a hot dish.
In the same pan, fry the mushrooms in the bacon fat.
Serve the mushrooms on toast, season with salt and pepper, and garnish with the bacon.
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.
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Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Breakfast bacon
- Renders fat that the mushrooms are fried in, adding savory flavor.
- Mushrooms
- Soften as they cook and release moisture, giving the topping a tender, savory body.
The step that matters
Fry the mushrooms in the bacon fat. Mushrooms release a lot of water. If the pan is crowded or too cool, they steam instead of browning, so they turn soggy and pale rather than savory and golden.
“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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