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Puree of Mushrooms

A creamy mushroom puree made by stewing mushrooms, onions, and butter, then blending with egg yolks and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Puree of Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Make the puree

  1. In a pan, combine mushrooms and cold water to prevent burning.

  2. Add the onion to test for bad mushrooms; discard if it turns bluish black.

  3. Stew the mushrooms slowly until they become a mass, then strain.

Finish the sauce

  1. In a stew-pan, melt butter or mix in flour and sugar, then add the puree.

  2. Let it stew for about five minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg yolks and cream.

Serve

  1. Serve in the center of a dish, surrounded by fried bread or toast.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 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

Mushrooms
Form the main body of the puree, giving the dish its flavor and texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the puree as they set gently with heat, adding richness and body.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and with flour helps build a smooth base for the puree.
Flour
Thickens the butter and puree together, giving the sauce body.
Cream
Adds fat and smoothness, softening the texture of the finished puree.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolks off the heat. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat and can scramble or curdle if overheated. Removing the pan from the heat before stirring them in keeps the puree smooth and creamy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, butter, sugar, egg, cream, bread):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, butter, sugar, egg, cream, bread. 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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