Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
White Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
Stir in the flour with a wooden spoon until combined.
Add the white stock and stir until it boils.
Wash and peel the mushrooms, then add them to the sauce.
Allow the sauce to boil again, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes with the lid half on.
Skim off any butter that rises to the surface.
Strain and finish
Strain the sauce through a fine cloth into another saucepan.
Heat the strained sauce until it boils, then stir in the cream.
Pour the sauce into a bowl and stir while it cools.
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.
-
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Mushroom + creamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,500 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
-
Flour + mushroomtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,253 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 fat and rich flavour, and carries the flour into a smooth base.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as its starch swells in the hot butter and liquid.
- White stock
- Forms the main liquid of the sauce, giving it body and savoury flavour.
- Mushrooms
- Add earthy flavour and a little texture to the simmering sauce.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture at the end.
The step that matters
Stirring the stock into the butter and flour. Adding liquid to a hot roux while stirring keeps the starch dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.
“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.
More white sauce recipes
You might also like
Mushroom Soup60 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.