Name: Poulet Saute Aux Champignons Frais — Chicken- Sauted with Fresh Mushrooms
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken; 2 dozen small fresh mushrooms; butter for frying; sherry or Madeira (instead of white wine)

Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Poulet Saute Aux Champignons Frais — Chicken- Sauted with Fresh Mushrooms

Ingredients

1 whole chicken
2 dozen small fresh mushrooms
butter for frying
sherry or Madeira (instead of white wine)

Directions

Prepare the chicken according to your preferred method and place it on a serving dish.
Garnish with small potato balls fried in butter and small glazed onions.
Ten minutes before the chicken is done, peel and wash the mushrooms thoroughly.
Add the mushrooms to the chicken and finish cooking.
Use sherry or Madeira instead of white wine for the 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.

Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,172 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,176 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,505 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Chicken + sherrytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together891 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).