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To Prepare Mushrooms

Sautéed mushrooms served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,176 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

To Prepare Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Wash the mushrooms, remove the stems, and peel the caps using a silver knife.

  2. Cut or break the caps into pieces.

Sauté

  1. Melt some butter in a saucepan and add the mushroom pieces.

  2. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and sherry if desired.

Serve

  1. Serve the sautéed mushrooms on toast.

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. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + sherrytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh mushrooms
Form the main body of the dish, releasing moisture as they cook and browning in the butter.
Butter
Conducts heat into the mushrooms and adds richness and browning flavour.
Toast
Provides a crisp, absorbent base that holds the sautéed mushrooms.

The step that matters

Cooking the mushrooms without crowding. Mushrooms release a lot of water as they cook. If the pan is too full or the heat too low, they steam instead of browning, producing a soggy, grey result rather than concentrated, golden flavour.

“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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