Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
To Melt Butter
sufficient for one sauce-boatIngredients
Directions
Prepare the butter
Keep a quart tin sauce-pan with a cover, exclusively for this purpose.
Weigh one quarter pound of good butter and rub with two teaspoonsful of flour.
When well mixed, put the mixture in the sauce-pan with one tablespoonful of water and a little salt.
Cover the sauce-pan and set it in a larger pan of boiling water.
Shake constantly until completely melted and beginning to boil.
Do not set the pan containing the butter on coals, as it will oil the butter and spoil it.
Add herbs
To begin with parsley: wash a large bunch very clean, pick the leaves from the stems carefully, boil them ten minutes in salt and water, drain them perfectly dry, mince them exceedingly fine, and stir them in the butter when it begins to melt.
When herbs are added to butter, you must put two spoonsful of water instead of one.
Chervil, young fennel, burnet, tarragon, and cress, or pepper-grass, may all be used, and must be prepared in the same manner as the parsley.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 2 of 3 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,078 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Butter + teatop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together703 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
-
Tea + flourtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together449 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
- Melts to form the rich base of the sauce, carrying the flavour of the herbs.
- Flour
- Rubbed into the butter to thicken the sauce and keep it smooth rather than oily.
The step that matters
Shaking the butter over gentle heat. Butter is an emulsion of fat, water and milk solids. Constant shaking over a surrounding hot water bath melts it gently and evenly. Direct heat on coals can split the emulsion, making the fat separate and the sauce oily and spoiled.
“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.
More melted butter recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.