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Sauce

Melted or Drawn Butter

A sauce made by melting butter with flour, milk, and water until thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Melted or Drawn Butter

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Melted or Drawn Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the butter into small pieces and place in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour and milk, then mix thoroughly.

Cook

  1. Add the water.

  2. Shake over medium heat until it begins to simmer.

  3. Let it stand quietly.

  4. Boil until it reaches the consistency of rich cream.

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.

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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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

Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the finished mixture a smooth, rich flavour.
Flour
Its starch swells in hot liquid and thickens the mixture.
Milk
Adds liquid and milk solids for a creamy texture and mild sweetness.

The step that matters

Boil until it reaches the consistency of rich cream. Flour starch thickens as it heats in liquid and swells. Boiling too briefly leaves the mixture thin and floury, while boiling too long evaporates water and can make it too thick or scorch.

“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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