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Sauce

Sometimes Called Drawn Butter

A sauce made by melting butter with flour and water, then simmering and seasoning with cayenne and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tea and vinegar work together. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 175 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Sometimes Called Drawn Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Take a quarter pound of fresh butter, cut it up, and mix with about two teaspoonfuls of flour.

  2. Put the mixture into a sauce-pan and add four tablespoonfuls of cold water.

  3. Cover the sauce-pan and set it in a large tin pan of boiling water.

  4. Shake the pan continually until the mixture is entirely melted and begins to simmer.

  5. Let the sauce rest until it boils up.

Brown the flour

  1. To brown flour: spread fine flour on a plate, bake in the oven, turning and stirring frequently until browned.

  2. Store browned flour in a jar, cover well, and keep for later use.

Brown the butter and finish

  1. To brown butter: put a lump of butter into a frying pan, toss over the fire until brown, then add browned flour and stir until it boils, making it smooth.

  2. Add cayenne and flavored vinegar to make a plain sauce for fish.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

464Calories
13 gProtein
2 gFat
96 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Eliza Leslie. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

  1. Tea + vinegartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together175 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Tea + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together449 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + vinegartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,652 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter (in the method)
Provides richness and fat, and browned butter adds a nutty aroma to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce, and browned flour adds color and a toasted flavor.
Cold water
Adds moisture so the butter emulsifies smoothly into the sauce as it melts.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and balances the sauce.

The step that matters

Shake the pan continually while the butter melts. Constant shaking in gentle heat keeps the butter from separating or scorching, so the flour and water blend into a smooth emulsion instead of a greasy or lumpy sauce.

“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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