Skip to main content
Main

Brains with Mushrooms

Creamy brains and mushrooms simmered in a roux-based sauce with cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Brains with Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the brains

  1. Boil the brains in a sack for about 2 hours.

Make the sauce and finish

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the flour to make a roux.

  2. Gradually add the cream to the roux, stirring until smooth.

  3. Add the boiled brains and mushrooms to the cream sauce.

  4. Season with cayenne pepper and stir in sherry if desired.

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. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Brains
Provides the main body of the dish and its rich, tender texture when cooked.
Mushrooms
Adds earthy flavor and soft, savory texture to the creamy sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth sauce by forming a roux.
Butter
Provides fat for the roux, adding richness and a smooth base for the sauce.
Cream
Forms the body of the sauce, adding richness and moisture.

The step that matters

Adding the cream to the roux. Cream should be added gradually while stirring. Adding it all at once can trap flour in lumps, so the sauce will not become smooth and even.

“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.

You might also like

Mushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes