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 ↓
White Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the roux
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, using a wooden spoon to coat the bottom of the pan.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the flour quickly to avoid lumps. If the butter cools before mixing, return the pan to the heat briefly.
Continue heating and stirring until the mixture turns a yellowish color, indicating the flour is cooked.
Finish the sauce
Gradually add the liquid (water, milk, or broth) while stirring to combine.
Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.
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.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Provides fat and flavor, and forms the base of the roux with the flour.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as its starch swells in the hot liquid.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid that the roux thickens into a creamy sauce.
The step that matters
Stirring in the flour off the heat. Adding flour to hot butter off the heat and stirring quickly keeps the starch dispersed, which prevents lumps from forming when the liquid is added.
“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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