Name: Cream Sauce for Fish
Ingredients: three ounces of good butter; four ounces of good butter; three ounces only; three ounces of the lean of a well-flavoured ham; two ounces of butter; a pint of good cream; a tablespoonful of common vinegar; a tablespoonful of mushroom catsup; a pint of rich; a small tablespoonful of flour; a pint of good melted butter; a small slice of butter; a tablespoonful of strained lemon-juice; an ounce of butter; a teaspoonful of flour; a pint of good boiling veal gravy; a small tablespoonful of flour very smoothly mixed; 1/2 pint; 1 large dessertspoonful; 1 teaspoonful; 1/4 saltspoonful; three dessertspoonsful of finely-minced parsley; 1 dessertspoonful; 1 tablespoonful; three teaspoonsful of minced parsley; 3 teaspoonsful; 1 small lemon; 3/4 pint; 2 dessertspoonsful; four cloves

Why it works: Butter and mushroom 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 ↓

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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mushroom + vealtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,446 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + lemontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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 with the flour to form the base that thickens the sauce and gives it richness.
Flour: Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the butter, giving it body.
Cream: Adds richness and smoothness, softening the sauce's texture.

The step that matters

Adding the cream gradually while stirring. Cream added all at once to a flour and butter base can lump. Adding it slowly and stirring constantly keeps the sauce smooth as it heats and thickens.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, ham, cream, vinegar, mushroom, flour, veal):

Lemonthe original
Applefits about as well
Strawberryfits about as well
Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ham, cream, vinegar, mushroom, flour, veal. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Pork	100g cooked	242
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Mushroom	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Lemon Thyme	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Cayenne	1 tsp (1.8g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Veal	not in our table	0
Mace	not in our table	0

Cream Sauce for Fish