Name: Creamed Mushrooms
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon flour; mushroom liquor (from drained mushrooms); enough cream to make a thin sauce; mushrooms; coarse sea salt (to taste); squares of toast

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 ↓

Creamed Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

Drain the liquor from the mushrooms and set it aside in a bowl.
In a granite pan, melt the butter over low heat.
Add the flour and stir until blended, without browning.
Gradually add the mushroom liquor and enough cream to create a thin sauce.

Finish and serve

Add the mushrooms and season with salt.
Heat thoroughly and serve over squares of 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.

Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 with the flour to form a roux that thickens the sauce.
Flour: Thickens the butter and liquid into a smooth, stable sauce.
Mushroom liquor: Adds concentrated mushroom flavour and liquid to the sauce.
Cream: Adds richness and body, thinning the sauce to a pourable consistency.
Mushrooms: Provide the main earthy flavour and texture of the dish.

The step that matters

Add the flour without browning. Cooking the butter and flour roux over low heat, without browning, keeps the flavour mild and creamy. Browning gives a toasted, nutty taste that changes the intended character, and high heat can scorch the flour and leave lumps when liquid is added.

“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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Creamed Mushrooms