Name: Mushroom-toast, or Croute Aux Champignons
Ingredients: 1 quart small mushrooms; 2 to 3 ounces fresh butter; ¼ teaspoon pounded mace; a pinch of cayenne pepper; 2 teaspoons flour; ½ pint gravy or beef broth

Why it works: Mushroom and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Mushroom-toast, or Croute Aux Champignons

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the stems from the mushrooms and peel them.
Remove the fur from the mushrooms.
Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat.
Add the mushrooms, mace, and cayenne; stew for 10-15 minutes, stirring often.
Add the flour and stir until lightly browned.
Gradually pour in the gravy or beef broth.
Let the mushrooms stew for a couple of minutes.

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 + beeftop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,232 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Swap the mace

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

Thymefits better
Parsleyfits better
Marjoramfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, butter, pepper, flour, beef. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.