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Mushrooms En Ragout

A French mushroom ragout made with stock, vinegar, herbs, and thickened with egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mushrooms En Ragout

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Heat the stock in a chafing dish.

  2. Add the vinegar, parsley, green onion, salt, and pepper.

  3. When the mixture is scalding hot, add the cleaned mushrooms.

  4. Once the mushrooms are cooked, thicken the dish with the egg yolks and serve hot.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the liquid into a rich, smooth sauce as they set gently with heat.
Mushrooms
Provide the main body, texture and earthy flavour of the ragout.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the yolks.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the other ingredients.

The step that matters

Thickening with the egg yolks. Egg yolks set when heated, but if the liquid is too hot or boils after they are added, they can scramble and turn grainy. Keep the heat low and stir steadily so the sauce thickens smoothly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, vinegar, parsley, pepper, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, vinegar, parsley, pepper, egg. 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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