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Mushrooms with Brains

A dish of mushrooms filled with mashed brains and herbs, baked and topped with bread crumbs and ham.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mushrooms with Brains

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Butter a tin.

  3. Lay the mushrooms in the tin. Season the mushrooms lightly. Cover the mushrooms with buttered paper.

  4. Cook the mushrooms in the oven until tender.

Make the filling

  1. Boil the brains until cooked. Mash the brains while hot.

  2. Mix the mashed brains with salt, cayenne, lemon peel, thyme, parsley, ham, mustard, and white sauce.

  3. Chop the mushroom stalks and add them to the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the cooked mushrooms with the mixture, leveling the tops.

  2. Sprinkle the mushrooms with fried bread crumbs. Place a piece of cooked ham on top of each mushroom.

  3. Set the mushrooms on a tin over a second tin of hot water. Return the tin to the oven for a few minutes.

  4. Arrange the mushrooms nicely on a dish. Serve.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Brains (in the method)
Form the bulk of the filling, setting into a soft, rich texture when cooked.
Mushrooms
Act as the edible cases that hold the filling while they soften in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and keeps the tin and mushrooms from sticking during cooking.
White sauce or cream
Binds the mashed filling and adds moisture so it stays soft rather than dry.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the filling and to the garnish on top.

The step that matters

Mash the brains while hot. Brains set firmly as they cool, so mashing while hot gives a smooth, even mixture that blends easily with the sauce and seasonings.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, butter, pepper, lemon, thyme, parsley, ham):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, butter, pepper, lemon, thyme, parsley, ham. 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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