Name: Stewed Mushrooms
Ingredients: Mushrooms; Coarse sea salt; Hot water; Butter or cream; Bread

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stewed Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Peel the mushrooms and place them in a soup plate with the handles sticking up.
Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt on the gills and let them sit to draw out juice.
In a pan, stir the mushrooms until they bubble.
If needed, add ⅓ cup of hot water and a knob of butter or a little cream.
Toast a slice of bread on both sides.
Once the mushroom gravy rises, turn the mushrooms over the toast in a deep dish and pepper well.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

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