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Mushroom Pie

A savory pie made with mushrooms, potatoes, onion, butter, mixed herbs, and hard‑boiled eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mushroom Pie

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

  1. Peel and wash the mushrooms, then cut them into 2 or 4 pieces based on their size.

  2. Peel and wash the potatoes, then cut them into walnut-sized pieces.

  3. Parboil the potatoes in 1 pint of water.

  4. Transfer the potatoes with the water into a pie dish.

  5. Chop the onion.

Make the filling

  1. Cook the onion with the mushrooms and butter in ½ pint of water for 10 minutes, adding the herbs and seasoning.

  2. Mix everything well in the pie dish.

  3. Quarter the hard-boiled eggs and place them on top.

Bake

  1. Cover the pie with a short crust.

  2. Bake the pie for 45 minutes to 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Mushroom + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together968 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 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 savoury body and moisture of the filling as they soften while cooking.
Potatoes
Parboiling and then baking gives the filling starchy body and helps it hold its shape.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour through the mushrooms and onion.
Spanish onion
Cooks down to add sweetness and savoury depth to the filling.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add firm, mild richness and texture to the filling.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, potato, butter, pepper, egg):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, potato, butter, pepper, egg. 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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