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Stuffed Mushrooms, Italian Style

Stuffed mushrooms filled with sautéed shallots, mushrooms, breadcrumbs, parsley, cream sauce, and egg yolks, baked and topped with breadcrumbs and sweet oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Stuffed Mushrooms, Italian Style

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cut off the stems of the mushrooms and wash them in acidulated water. Drain on a napkin.

  3. In a saucepan, melt the butter and lightly fry the shallots.

  4. Add the chopped mushrooms, cover, and cook until the moisture is reduced.

  5. Stir in the bread crumbs, season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and add the parsley and cream sauce. Mix well.

  6. Remove from heat and let cool slightly before adding the egg yolks.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff the mushrooms with the mixture and sprinkle fresh bread crumbs on top.

  2. Arrange in a buttered baking pan and drizzle with sweet oil.

  3. Bake for 30 minutes and serve with brown Italian sauce.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  3. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms
Provide the main body of the dish and release moisture that must be cooked down before stuffing.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling and set on baking, holding the stuffing together.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the filling body, and brown to form a crisp topping.
Butter
Adds fat and rich flavor when shallots are gently fried.
Shallots
Add a mild aromatic sweetness to the filling as they soften in butter.

The step that matters

Cooling before adding the egg yolks. If the filling is still hot, the egg yolks can scramble or curdle instead of blending smoothly, and they will not bind the stuffing evenly. Letting it cool slightly keeps the yolks smooth and helps the filling set in the oven.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

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