Name: Mushrooms on Toast
Ingredients: 1 quart mushrooms, peeled and trimmed; 1 ounce butter; ½ pound raw minced steak; ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 1 pinch cayenne pepper; ½ cup hot water; Additional butter (if needed); Sherry (optional, for serving); Toast (for serving)

Why it works: Mushroom and sherry 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 ↓

Mushrooms on Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Peel and trim the mushrooms.
Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat.

Cook

Add the minced steak and cook until the juices are extracted.
Tilt the pan and press the meat with a spoon until dry, then remove it.
Add the mushrooms to the pan; if the liquid is low, add more butter.
Toss the mushrooms for a moment, then pour over hot toast.
Optionally, add a little sherry before serving.

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 + sherrytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,176 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,505 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pepper + sherrytop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,107 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms: Form the main body of the dish and release moisture as they cook down.
Butter: Carries heat across the pan and adds richness and flavor to the mushrooms.
Raw minced steak: Releases juices that flavor the pan, then is removed so the mushrooms brown rather than steam in them.

The step that matters

Drying the minced steak. Pressing the meat until dry and removing it concentrates the meat juices in the pan without letting the meat stew. Leaving liquid behind would steam the mushrooms instead of browning them.

“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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Mushrooms on Toast