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Devilled Mushrooms in Cases

Mushrooms stuffed in paper cases, baked with devilled meat and topped with mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Devilled Mushrooms in Cases

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Wipe and peel the mushrooms, then cut them into small dice.

  2. Butter small paper cases and place a slice of lemon in each.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill the cases with mushrooms three-quarters full.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, cayenne, and lemon juice.

  3. Spread a layer of potted devilled meat mixed with the egg yolk over each case.

  4. Brush the tops with oiled butter and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 15 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the cases on small round fried bread croutons.

  2. Before serving, top with stiff mayonnaise sauce and sprinkle with cayenne.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms
Form the main filling, giving moist, savoury bulk to each case.
Potted devilled meat
Adds rich, spiced flavour to the layer spread over the mushrooms.
Egg yolk
Binds the potted meat mixture so it holds together as a layer.
Stiff mayonnaise sauce
Adds richness and a creamy finish to the top before serving.

The step that matters

Fill the cases three-quarters full. Overfilling lets the mushrooms release liquid and spill over during baking, while underfilling leaves the cases dry and uneven. Filling to the set level keeps the topping even and the cases moist.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Coconutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, butter, pepper, meat, egg, bread, sauce. 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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