Why it works: Mushroom and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓
Mushroom Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mushrooms
Remove the stock from the mushrooms and mash them.
Chop the mushrooms finely with a silver knife.
Make the soup
In a pot, heat the chicken stock over medium heat and cover; simmer gently for 30 minutes.
Add the salt and simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
Thicken and serve
In a saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour; cook for 1 minute.
Gradually add the cream to the mushrooms, then mix it into the butter and flour, stirring to maintain a smooth thickness.
Stir until the mixture reaches a boiling point, then add a dash of white pepper.
Serve in cups for luncheon.
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 + chickentop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,172 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
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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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mushroom + creamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,500 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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
- Provide the main earthy flavor and body of the soup.
- Chicken stock
- Serves as the liquid base that carries the flavor of the soup.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, and forms the base of the roux with the flour.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup as its starch swells when cooked in fat and liquid.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the finished soup.
The step that matters
Adding the cream and stirring while thickening. Flour thickens only when its starch is evenly hydrated and heated. Adding the cream gradually while stirring keeps the mixture smooth, while adding it all at once can leave lumps.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, chicken, butter, flour, cream):
- Garlicfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Thymefits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, chicken, butter, flour, cream. 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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