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Stuffed Mushrooms, Italian Style

Stuffed mushrooms filled with sautéed shallots, mushrooms, bread crumbs, parsley, cream sauce, and egg yolks, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Stuffed Mushrooms, Italian Style

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Cut off the stems of the mushrooms close to the top and wash them in acidulated water. Drain on a napkin.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and lightly fry the shallots.

  2. Add the chopped mushrooms, cover, and cook until the moisture is reduced.

  3. Stir in the bread crumbs, season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, then add the parsley and cream sauce. Mix well.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool, then stir in the egg yolks.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff the mushrooms with the mixture, sprinkle with bread crumbs, and arrange in a buttered baking pan.

  2. Drizzle a few drops of sweet oil on each mushroom.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden and serve with brown Italian sauce.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms
Hollow caps hold the filling, and their moisture cooks off to concentrate flavour.
Butter
Fat that softens the shallots and chopped mushrooms and adds richness to the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture from the mushrooms and give the filling body and a golden crust.
Egg yolks
Bind the cooled filling so it holds its shape when stuffed and baked.
Cream sauce
Adds moisture and richness so the filling stays tender rather than dry.

The step that matters

Reduce the chopped mushroom moisture. If the chopped mushrooms are not cooked until their liquid has evaporated, the filling stays wet. Excess water then makes it loose, and it can steam the caps rather than letting the crumbs brown.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, shallot, butter, bread, pepper, parsley, cream. 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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