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 ↓
Espagnole Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat.
Add the flour and stir carefully until it turns light brown.
Mix in the stock, broth, or gravy.
Simmer beside the fire, skimming occasionally to prevent sticking.
Strain before serving and add the Madeira wine.
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 + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + madeira winetop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together423 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + madeira winetop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together637 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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
- Enriches the sauce and carries flavour while the roux is cooked.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as a roux, giving it body and structure.
- Stock, broth, or gravy
- Forms the liquid base that the roux thickens into a sauce.
- Madeira wine
- Adds sweetness and aroma to finish the sauce.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour until light brown. Flour must be cooked in the fat long enough to lose its raw taste and thicken evenly, but stirred constantly so it does not scorch. Scorched roux turns bitter and dark, and undercooked roux leaves the sauce tasting floury.
“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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