Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Colourings for Soups, Gravy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the colorant
In a saucepan, combine 4 oz of lump sugar, 1 cup of water, and 1 oz of butter.
Place the saucepan over gentle heat and stir with a wooden spoon until it turns a bright brown.
Add ½ cup of water, bring to a boil, and skim off any impurities.
Store and use
Allow to cool, then bottle and cork tightly.
Use as needed to color soups, gravies, or cakes.
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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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lump sugar
- Caramelizes to form the brown color and a deep, slightly bitter flavor.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, rounding out the flavor of the colorant.
The step that matters
Stirring the sugar to bright brown. Sugar darkens quickly once it starts to caramelize, and past the bright brown stage it turns bitter and burnt. Keep the heat gentle and watch closely so the color stops at the desired shade.
“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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