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To Stew Canned Mushrooms

A creamy stew made from canned mushrooms, butter, flour, milk, sherry, and egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,176 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

To Stew Canned Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Drain the mushrooms.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  3. Stir in the flour until smooth.

  4. Add the boiling milk.

  5. Stir until it boils for 2 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the mushrooms, salt, and pepper.

  2. Stir until heated through.

  3. Remove from heat.

  4. Stir in the beaten egg yolk mixed with sherry.

  5. Serve on buttered toast or thin slices of fried bread.

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. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  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. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Mushroom + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,231 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps build the base of the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth, stable sauce.
Milk or cream
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and gives it creaminess.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the sauce, giving it a silky texture.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma that balance the richness of the sauce.
Mushrooms
Provide the main earthy flavour and savoury body of the stew.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolk off the heat. Egg yolk thickens by gentle heat and can scramble or curdle if it gets too hot. Removing the pan from the heat before adding the beaten yolk and sherry lets it thicken the sauce smoothly.

“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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