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Sauce

Melted Butter

A butter-based sauce made with flour, pepper, nutmeg, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Melted Butter

Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Melted Butter

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Divide the butter into six equal portions and place one portion in a small saucepan over low heat.

  2. Add the flour, pepper, and nutmeg to the melted butter and mix well.

  3. Pour in half of the cold water and stir over the heat until the mixture is creamy.

  4. Gradually add the remaining butter, stirring gently and avoiding high heat.

  5. If the mixture begins to curdle, add a spoonful of cold water, reduce the heat, and stir quickly.

  6. Once fully melted, strain the mixture through a fine sieve for a smoother texture.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

  1. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Provides the fat that gives the sauce its rich flavor and smooth, glossy body.
Flour
Thickens the butter and water mixture so the sauce becomes creamy.
Cold water
Helps the emulsion form and brings the sauce back together if it starts to curdle.

The step that matters

Adding the remaining butter gradually over gentle heat. Butter added too fast or over high heat can separate and curdle the emulsion. Adding it slowly with gentle stirring lets it blend into the creamy base, and a spoonful of cold water can help restore it if it begins to split.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Turmericfits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Sagefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper. 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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