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A loaf slice hollowed and fried, topped with a mushroom gravy made with butter, mace, cayenne, flour, and broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bread

  1. Cut a thick slice (about 1¼ inches) from the bottom of the loaf.

  2. Hollow out the inside slightly.

  3. Fry the slice in good butter until light brown.

  4. Alternatively, butter the bread and grill it over gentle heat.

Make the mushroom gravy

  1. In a pan, cook the mushrooms with butter, mace, and cayenne for 10 to 15 minutes.

  2. Add flour and cook for 3 to 5 minutes.

  3. Stir in gravy or broth and cook for 2 minutes.

  4. Season with salt and lemon juice.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms
Give the gravy its main body and earthy flavour as they soften and release their juices.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it cooks with the butter and liquid.
Butter
Browns the bread and enriches the mushrooms and gravy with fat and flavour.
Gravy or broth
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding savoury depth.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour into the mushrooms. Flour must be cooked for a few minutes after it goes in, otherwise the gravy keeps a raw, pasty taste and thickens unevenly. Cooking it in the butter and mushroom juices also helps it blend smoothly when the liquid is added.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, lemon, milk, nutmeg, mushroom, ketchup, flour):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, lemon, milk, nutmeg, mushroom, ketchup, flour. 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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