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 ↓
Axu Soups
Ingredients
Directions
Make your broth or gravy.
In a separate pan, melt a bit of butter and mix in flour until well combined.
Gradually incorporate this mixture into the broth or gravy to thicken.
Use meat from which broth has been made, pound it, and season as usual for a savory dish.
Keep spare broth on hand to prevent your soup from becoming too thick.
If the soup is too thin, boil it uncovered to evaporate some liquid or add thickening materials.
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).
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
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