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
Prepare and stew
Wipe the mushrooms with a wet cloth and place them in a saucepan with a little water.
Stew gently for 15 minutes.
Thicken
Add a pinch of salt and mix in flour and butter until thick like cream.
Boil for 5 minutes.
Enrich and serve
Before serving, stir in 2 tablespoons of cream mixed with the egg yolk.
Warm the mixture over low heat for 1 minute, avoiding boiling to prevent curdling.
Serve hot with sippets around the dish.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Large button mushrooms
- Form the main body of the dish and release their own juices as they stew.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking liquid into a thick, creamy sauce as it heats.
- Butter
- Adds richness and smoothness to the thickened sauce.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a silky texture to the sauce.
- 1 egg yolk
- Enriches and thickens the sauce further when gently warmed with cream.
The step that matters
Warm the mixture over low heat after adding the egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens by gentle heat but scrambles and curdles if it boils, so the mixture must stay below boiling once the yolk and cream are added.
“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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