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Mushroom Buttons

A preserved mushroom mixture made by simmering button mushrooms with butter, white wine, and lemon, then stored in a jar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,765 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

Mushroom Buttons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pick out the button mushrooms and trim off the stems.

  2. Peel and wash the mushrooms in cold water with a little lemon juice.

Cook and store

  1. Place the mushrooms in an earthenware casserole with butter and white wine.

  2. Cover and simmer slowly until heated through.

  3. Add the juice of 1 lemon and transfer to a Mason jar.

  4. Seal the jar and store in a cool place as a substitute for canned mushrooms.

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 + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

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

  3. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Mushroom + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,633 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

Button mushrooms
The main ingredient; they soften and release their own moisture as they simmer.
Butter
Adds fat and a rich, savory flavor that carries the mushrooms' taste.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma, and its liquid helps the mushrooms cook gently.
Lemon juice
Adds bright acidity and helps keep the cut mushrooms from darkening.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly until heated through. Gentle heat softens the mushrooms and keeps them tender and juicy. Fast, high heat drives off their liquid and makes the mushrooms tough and rubbery.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, butter, white wine):

  1. Plumfits better
  2. Applefits better
  3. Grapefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, butter, white wine. 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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