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Mushrooms En Ragout

A French mushroom ragout made with stock, vinegar, parsley, green onions, spices, and thickened with egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mushrooms En Ragout

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a stew-pan, combine stock, vinegar, parsley, green onions, salt, and spices.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Cook and thicken

  1. Add the cleaned mushrooms and cook until done.

  2. Remove from heat and thicken with egg yolks.

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 + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  2. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

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

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, texture and earthy flavour of the ragout.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavours and cooks the mushrooms.
Egg yolks
Thicken the liquid as their proteins set gently with heat, giving a smooth body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the yolks.

The step that matters

Add the egg yolks off the heat. Egg yolk proteins set at moderate temperatures and scramble if the liquid is boiling. Removing the pan from heat before thickening lets the yolks join the liquid gently, giving a smooth, even thickness.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, parsley, mushroom, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, parsley, mushroom, 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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