Name: Mushroom Pie, Vegetarian
Ingredients: ½ pound mushrooms; ½ pound potatoes; 2 tablespoons butter; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt; a pinch of nutmeg; 1 teaspoon chopped thyme (optional); 1 teaspoon chopped parsley (optional); pie crust

Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mushroom Pie, Vegetarian

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Prepare the mushrooms by cleaning them.
Parboil the potatoes until slightly tender.
Slice the potatoes and break the mushrooms into pieces.

Assemble and bake

Season the mixture with black pepper, salt, nutmeg, thyme, and parsley if desired.
Fill the pie dish with the mixture and dot with butter.
Cover with pie crust, sealing the edges, and bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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.

Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Nutmeg + thymetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,907 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms: Provide the main filling bulk and savory, earthy flavor.
Potatoes: Add starch that gives the filling body and a soft, hearty texture.
Butter: Adds richness and fat that helps the top crust brown.

Swap the thyme

The recipe marks thyme as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, potato, butter, pepper, nutmeg, parsley):

Thymethe original
Marjoramfits about as well
Tarragonfits less well
Rosemaryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, potato, butter, pepper, nutmeg, parsley. 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.