Why it works: Butter and mushroom 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 ↓
Mushroom Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the flour and cook until it turns dark brown.
Gradually stir in the stock and bring to a boil.
Add the liquid from the mushrooms and let the mushrooms simmer for 5 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper, 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.
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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Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mushroom + flourtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,253 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 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
- Butter
- Melts to form the fat base that carries the flour and gives the sauce richness.
- Flour
- Cooks with the butter to form a roux that thickens the sauce as the stock is added.
- Stock
- Forms the liquid of the sauce, which thickens as it heats with the roux.
- Mushrooms
- Add savory, earthy flavor and body to the sauce while they simmer in it.
The step that matters
Cooking the flour until dark brown. Flour cooked in butter toasts and darkens, which adds color and a nutty flavor, but it also loses thickening power and can scorch quickly over heat. Stir constantly and watch closely.
“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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