Why it works: Horse and mushroom work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 24 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Artificial Mushroom Beds
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare a box about 3 feet long, 1.5 feet wide, and 7 inches deep, filling it halfway with fresh horse dung.
Beat down the manure well.
After 2-3 days, when the manure generates heat, break mushroom spawn into 3-inch pieces.
Lay the pieces 4 inches apart on the surface of the manure.
Leave the spawn for 6 days to allow it to start growing.
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.
-
Horse + mushroomtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together24 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
You might also like
Mushroom Soup60 recipes
Horseradish Sauce23 recipes
Horseradish Butter6 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.