Name: Mushrooms Stuffed
Ingredients: 1½ dozen large mushrooms; 1 shallot, finely chopped; 2 tablespoons cold butter; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt; Fried bread for serving

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 ↓

Mushrooms Stuffed

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Remove the skin and stems from the mushrooms, and chop the stems and inside finely.
Mix the chopped mushrooms with shallot, cold butter, pepper, and salt.
Fill the hollow part of each mushroom with the mixture.

Bake and serve

Butter a sauté pan and place the mushrooms in it.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 15 minutes until well cooked.
Serve the mushrooms on fried bread, pouring the juices over them.

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 + shallottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,982 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms: Form the edible shell and release moisture that forms the juices when baked.
Cold butter: Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and helps the filling baste the mushrooms.
Shallot: Adds a mild, sweet onion aroma to the filling.