Why it works: Mushroom and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
Stewed Mushrooms
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wipe the mushrooms clean with a wet cloth and cut off the stalks.
Place the mushrooms in a porcelain saucepan and cover with cold water.
Stew and finish
Stew gently for 15 minutes.
Add salt to taste and the butter bits.
Boil for 3 minutes, then stir in the cream whipped with the egg.
Stew for 2 minutes without boiling, then serve.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mushroom + creamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,500 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Button mushrooms
- Form the main body of the dish and release their liquid as they stew.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the cooking liquid.
- Cream
- Adds richness and body to the sauce, softening its flavour.
- Egg
- Helps thicken the cream mixture when stirred into the hot liquid.
The step that matters
Stew for 2 minutes without boiling. Once the egg and cream go in, boiling can curdle the egg proteins and split the sauce, leaving it grainy instead of smooth.
“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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