Why it works: Sherry and mushroom 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
Make the sauce
Stew the parsley over gentle heat, stirring often, until the saucepan sides are reddish‑brown.
Mix in the flour and let it take on a little color.
Gradually add the veal stock, making the sauce boil with each addition.
Add the sherry or Madeira and the bruised bodies of the birds.
Boil for 1 to 1½ hours, then strain and remove fat from the sauce.
Finish and serve
If using mushrooms, add them with the other seasonings into the butter.
Pour the sauce over the game joints and heat slowly until near boiling.
Serve immediately with delicately fried 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.
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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Sherry + mushroomtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,176 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).
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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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Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,132 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 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
- Parsley
- Stewed until reddish-brown, it colors and gives the sauce its distinctive aromatic flavor.
- Flour
- Cooked briefly in the pan, it thickens the sauce as it combines with the stock.
- Veal stock or gravy
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, providing body and savory depth.
- Sherry or madeira
- Adds acidity and aromatic sweetness that rounds out the rich sauce.
- Game birds
- Their bodies, bruised and simmered, release meaty flavor into the sauce.
The step that matters
Stewing the parsley until reddish-brown. Over gentle heat the parsley must darken without scorching; burnt bitterness would carry into the whole sauce, while pale parsley gives little color or flavor.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, veal, sherry, butter, mushroom):
- Thymefits better
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Marjoramfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, veal, sherry, butter, mushroom. 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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