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Ragout of Mushrooms

A savory mushroom ragout made with fresh mushrooms, butter, onion, egg yolks, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Ragout of Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and dice the mushrooms.

  2. Stew the stems and skins in water for 20 minutes.

  3. Strain the broth and add the mushrooms, butter, onion, salt, and pepper.

  4. Cook until the mushrooms are tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove from heat and stir in the egg yolks quickly.

  2. Serve hot, garnished with minced parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms
Provide the main body and flavor of the ragout, and release savory juices as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished sauce.
Egg yolks
Thicken the broth into a creamy sauce when stirred in off the heat.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat. If the mixture is too hot or stirred slowly, the yolks can scramble into lumps. Removing the pan from heat first and stirring quickly spreads the yolks evenly and keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, butter, pepper, egg, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, butter, pepper, egg, parsley. 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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