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Sauce

Mushroom Sauce

A sauce made with Espagnole, tomato, mushrooms, and sherry, simmered and served warm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Combine the Espagnole sauce and tomato sauce in a saucepan.

  2. Add the mushrooms and sherry wine.

  3. Simmer the mixture until heated through.

Serve

  1. Serve warm.

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. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Mushroom + winetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,632 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  4. Tomato + winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,759 recipes

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

  5. Sauce + tomatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Espagnole sauce
Provides the rich, savory brown sauce base that gives body to the dish.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and depth of flavor to the sauce base.
Mushrooms
Contribute earthy flavor and a tender, meaty texture.
Sherry wine
Adds aromatic, slightly sweet and acidic notes to the sauce.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, mushroom, sherry, wine):

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Asparagusfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, mushroom, sherry, wine. 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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