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Grilled Mushrooms on Toast

Grilled mushrooms served on toasted wholemeal bread, garnished with fried parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Grilled Mushrooms on Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Carefully pick and skin the mushrooms.

  2. Place a little butter on each mushroom and grill over a clear fire.

Prepare the toast

  1. Remove the crust from the bread and butter both sides.

  2. Place the toasted bread on a hot dish.

Assemble and serve

  1. Lay some grilled mushrooms on each piece of toast.

  2. Garnish with fried parsley.

  3. Serve very hot.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 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

Mushrooms
Cook down and brown on the grill, giving the toast its main savoury flavour and soft texture.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the mushrooms and bread brown when grilled.
Wholemeal bread
Forms the base that soaks up butter and juices and holds the mushrooms.

The step that matters

Grilling the mushrooms over a clear fire. Mushrooms are mostly water. Over a clear, steady heat the surface can brown before they release too much liquid, which concentrates flavour. A smoky or flaming fire can scorch the outside while the centre stays raw.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Sagefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, butter, pepper, bread. 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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