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Scalloped Mushrooms

Scalloped mushrooms are baked in a creamy sauce with mushrooms, spices, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Scalloped Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Stem, peel, and wash the mushrooms.

  2. Cook them in boiling salted water for 5 minutes.

  3. Drain and keep hot over boiling water.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, make a white roux by stirring the butter and flour until smooth.

  2. Thin the roux with the hot cream or milk and add a pinch of baking soda.

  3. When the mixture thickens, stir in the mushrooms, cayenne, nutmeg, and a little salt.

  4. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill ramekins or scallop shells with the mixture.

  2. Cover with fine bread crumbs.

  3. Dot with butter.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until light brown.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 earthy flavor of the dish.
Butter
Enriches the roux and adds richness and flavor to the topping.
Flour
Thickens the cream into a smooth white sauce that holds the mushrooms together.
Cream or milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and richness.
Baking soda
Raises the sauce's pH slightly, which can soften the mixture and aid browning.

The step that matters

Thickening the roux with hot cream. Adding the liquid too quickly or cold can leave lumps in the flour-based sauce. Stirring steadily while adding hot liquid lets the starch swell evenly into a smooth sauce.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, butter, flour, cream, pepper, 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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