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Stewed Mushrooms with Wine

Stewed mushrooms simmered with wine, stock, butter, olive oil, parsley, and browned flour, served over buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Stewed Mushrooms with Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mushrooms

  1. In a large skillet, heat the butter and olive oil over medium heat.

  2. Add the browned flour and stir until combined.

  3. Add the minced parsley, sliced mushrooms, and stock.

  4. Cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  5. Just before serving, stir in the sherry.

Serve

  1. Serve the mushrooms on 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.

  1. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Parsley + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,571 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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

  5. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms
Provide the main bulk and earthy flavor, softening and releasing liquid as they stew.
Browned flour
Thickens the stewing liquid into a smooth sauce as it cooks with the stock.
Butter
Adds richness and a savory, nutty flavor to the skillet base.
Sherry
Adds acidity and a wine aroma that brightens the rich, thickened sauce.
Stock
Supplies the cooking liquid that braises the mushrooms and forms the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the browned flour into the fat. Flour must be fully combined with the butter and oil before the stock goes in, so it disperses evenly; otherwise lumps form and the sauce thickens unevenly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, olive, butter, sherry, flour):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, olive, butter, sherry, flour. 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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