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Mushrooms

A creamy mushroom sauce made with fresh mushrooms, milk, cream, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the mushrooms and place them in a saucepan.

  2. Add water, milk, and salt.

Make the sauce

  1. Bring to a boil over high heat three times.

  2. Remove from heat and add nutmeg, mace, cream, and butter.

  3. Return to heat and stir occasionally until the sauce thickens.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately, ensuring the mixture does not curdle.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh mushrooms
Form the body of the sauce and release savory flavor as they cook.
Thick cream
Adds richness and body, helping the sauce become smooth and thick.
Butter rolled in flour
Flour thickens the sauce while butter adds richness and a silky texture.
Milk
Adds liquid and mild sweetness, thinning the cream to a pourable sauce.

The step that matters

Returning the sauce to heat after adding the cream and butter. Dairy proteins can curdle or separate when boiled hard with acid or after too much heat. Gentle heat and occasional stirring keep the cream sauce smooth while the flour thickens it.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, milk, nutmeg, cream, butter, flour):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, milk, nutmeg, cream, butter, flour. 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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