Name: Mushrooms on Toast
Ingredients: 1 quart mushrooms, peeled and trimmed; ½ pound round steak, finely chopped; 2 tablespoons butter; Salt, to taste; Cayenne pepper, to taste; 4 slices of bread, buttered; Optional: 2 tablespoons sherry

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 ↓

Mushrooms on Toast

Ingredients

1 quart mushrooms, peeled and trimmed
½ pound round steak, finely chopped
2 tablespoons butter
Salt, to taste
Cayenne pepper, to taste
4 slices of bread, buttered
Optional: 2 tablespoons sherry

Directions

Make the mushroom topping

Melt butter over medium heat.
Fry chopped steak until juices release.
Remove steak when done.
Add mushrooms to the hot gravy and toss until heated through.
Season with salt and cayenne pepper.
Stir in sherry before serving if desired.

Serve

Pour the mushroom mixture over the buttered 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.

Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,176 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 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 topping and soak up the savory gravy.
Round steak: Releases juices and fat that build the savory gravy the mushrooms are tossed in.
Butter: Carries the frying and adds richness and browning to the steak and mushrooms.
Bread: Provides a crisp, absorbent base that holds the warm mushroom topping.

The step that matters

Fry the chopped steak until its juices release. Browning the meat in hot butter builds the flavor of the gravy. Cooking too gently steams the steak and leaves the juices pale and bland.

“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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Mushrooms on Toast