Name: Brown Mushroom Sauce
Ingredients: 8 preserved mushrooms; ½ cup of the liquor from the mushrooms; ⅓ cup sherry; ⅓ cup thin Espagnole sauce

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 ↓

Brown Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients

8 preserved mushrooms
½ cup of the liquor from the mushrooms
⅓ cup sherry
⅓ cup thin Espagnole sauce

Directions

Finely chop the mushrooms.
In a saucepan, combine the mushrooms, their liquor, and sherry. Cover the pan and bring to a boil.
Add the Espagnole sauce and bring to a boil again.
Season to taste and 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.

Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,176 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).
Mushroom + saucetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,480 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sherry + saucetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,097 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Preserved mushrooms: Provide the main flavor and texture of the sauce.
Mushroom liquor: Adds concentrated mushroom flavor and moisture to the sauce.
Sherry: Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the sauce.
Espagnole sauce: Gives the sauce its body and thickness.

“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.