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Mushroom Tart and Gravy

A baked mushroom tart served with a savory gravy made from mushroom stalks and shallots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and shallot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mushroom Tart and Gravy

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 the pastry

  1. Pick and wash the mushrooms, remove the stalks, dry them, and cut them into pieces.

  2. Make pastry with the wheatmeal, 3 oz of butter, and a little cold water.

  3. Roll the pastry out and line a large plate.

Assemble the tart

  1. Heap the mushrooms on the pastry.

  2. Dredge the mushrooms well with pepper and salt.

  3. Scatter the remaining butter in bits over the mushrooms.

  4. Keep a little of the pastry to cut into thin strips.

  5. Lay the strips in a diamond shape across the pie.

  6. Bake the pie for 2 hours in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

Make the gravy

  1. For the gravy, fry the stalks and shallots in the butter.

  2. Gently cook them in ½ pint of water for 1 hour, adding seasoning and bay leaves.

  3. Strain the sauce.

  4. Return it to the saucepan.

  5. Thicken it with the cornflour.

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

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

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

  5. Butter + shallottop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 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

Wheatmeal
Forms the pastry structure that holds the mushroom filling.
Butter
Adds richness and flakiness to the pastry and enriches the filling and gravy.
Mushrooms
Provide the main savoury filling and moisture as they cook.
Shallots
Add mild sweetness and aroma to the gravy.
Cornflour
Thickens the gravy to a smooth, glossy consistency.

The step that matters

Thicken the gravy after straining. Cornflour thickens only when heated, and it needs to be stirred in while the liquid is simmering, or it stays thin or turns lumpy.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Potatofits about as well

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