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Mushroom Sauox

A savory sauce made from sautéed mushrooms, stock, and oyster liquor, finished with butter, milk, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mushroom Sauox

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Cut mushrooms into pieces and mince them.

  2. Press minced mushrooms in a cloth and sauté them in melted butter.

  3. Add stock, parsley, and minced garlic; cook over medium heat for 30 minutes.

  4. Strain the mixture and discard the solids.

Prepare the oysters

  1. Save the liquor from opening the oysters and boil it with mace and lemon peel.

  2. Soak oysters in cold water, then drain.

Make the sauce

  1. Combine oyster liquor with oysters, butter, and a little milk to make the sauce.

  2. Rub a little flour into the butter before adding it to the saucepan.

  3. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens; do not overcook the oysters.

  4. Squeeze in lemon juice and serve hot, optionally adding cream.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Mushroom + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,700 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms
Provide the main earthy flavour and body of the sauce once strained.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the butter and liquid.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour to the sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and oyster flavours.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that gives the sauce a smooth texture.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, without overcooking the oysters. Flour thickens the sauce only when heated gently and stirred, and high heat can scorch it or make it lumpy. Overcooked oysters become tough and rubbery, spoiling the texture.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, butter, parsley, clove, garlic, lemon, oyster):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, butter, parsley, clove, garlic, lemon, oyster. 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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