Why it works: Mushroom and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
Stewed Mushrooms
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove the skins and ends of the mushroom stems.
Wash the mushrooms thoroughly.
Place them in a saucepan without added water.
Cook
Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and a piece of butter.
Dredge a little flour over the mushrooms.
Cook slowly over low heat, stirring often.
Serve hot.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mushroom + flourtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,253 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Mushrooms
- Form the dish itself, releasing their own moisture as they cook down into a stew.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and helping the mushrooms brown lightly.
- Flour
- Lightly thickens the juices released by the mushrooms as they stew, giving body to the sauce.
The step that matters
Cook slowly over low heat, stirring often. Mushrooms release a lot of water as they heat. Cooking gently lets that liquid evaporate and concentrate its flavour, while stirring keeps the flour from clumping and scorching on the pan bottom.
“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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