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 ↓
Common Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the butter sauce
In a quart saucepan, combine butter and flour until well mixed.
Add water and salt, then cover the saucepan.
Place the saucepan in a larger pot of boiling water.
Shake constantly until the butter is completely melted and begins to boil.
Add the parsley
For parsley sauce, wash and pick the leaves from the stems.
Boil the parsley in salted water for 10 minutes, then drain and mince finely.
Stir the minced parsley into the melted butter when it begins to melt.
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 + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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
- Forms the body of the sauce and carries flavour through its fat.
- Flour
- Thickens the melted butter into a smooth, stable sauce.
- Parsley
- Adds fresh herbal flavour and colour to the sauce.
The step that matters
Shake constantly while the butter melts. Constant shaking in a gentle water bath keeps the butter and flour emulsified and evenly heated. Without it, the mixture can separate or scorch on the base of the pan.
Swap the parsley
The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour):
- Jalapenofits better
- Capersfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour. 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.
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