Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
Mushroom Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
In a bowl, mix the flour, 3 oz. of butter, and baking powder.
Add enough cold water to form a dough.
Assemble and cook
Grease a pudding basin and line it with the dough.
Place the mushrooms in the basin, add the remaining butter, and season with pepper and salt.
Cover and boil for 1.5 hours.
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.
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Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 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).
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Flour + mushroomtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,253 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the dough that lines the basin and holds the filling together.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in the dough and filling.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that helps the dough rise and lighten as it cooks.
- Mushrooms
- Provide the main filling, releasing moisture that cooks into the pudding.
The step that matters
Adding enough cold water to form the dough. Too little water leaves a crumbly dough that will not hold its shape, while too much makes it sticky and tough. Adding water gradually until the dough just comes together gives a dough that lines the basin neatly and stays tender when boiled.
“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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