Name: Modern Cookery
Ingredients: 2 dozen mushroom buttons; coarse sea salt; ham; herbs; 2-3 tablespoons Harvey's sauce; claret, sherry, or Madeira (optional)

Why it works: Mushroom and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,176 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Clean the mushroom buttons with coarse sea salt and a flannel, then wipe them dry and slice them.

Make the soup

Simmer the ham and herbs together for about 30 minutes.
Add the sliced mushrooms to the soup and stir well.
Optionally, stir in 2-3 tablespoons of Harvey's sauce and claret, sherry, or Madeira to enhance the taste.

Substitution

If mushrooms are unavailable, substitute with 2-3 fresh bay leaves for flavor.

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.

Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,176 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).
Ham + sherrytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Mushroom + hamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,486 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Mushroom + saucetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,480 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ham + saucetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,314 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushroom buttons: Add savoury, earthy flavour and body to the broth once sliced and stirred in.
Ham: Simmering releases savoury flavour into the soup, giving it its main meaty base.
Harvey's sauce: Adds a sharp, savoury depth that rounds out the soup's flavour.

“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.