Name: Drawn Butter Sauces
Ingredients: 1 heaping tablespoon butter or beef fat; 1 heaping tablespoon flour; 1 pint water; 1 teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon pepper; ½ tablespoon beef fat (optional); ½ tablespoon butter (cut in little pieces, optional); Milk (for variation); Chopped pickles (for fish sauce); 1 tablespoon vinegar (for fish sauce); Mustard (for mustard sauce); Eggs (raw or cooked, for variation); Salt and pepper (for gravy); Powdered herb (optional, for gravy)

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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

What each ingredient does

Butter or beef fat: Carries the flour and adds rich flavor as the base fat for the sauce.
Flour: Thickens the liquid into a smooth sauce as its starch swells with heat.
Water: Hydrates the flour starch so the mixture thickens into a pourable sauce.
Eggs: Add richness and body to the sauce when used in the variation.

The step that matters

Brown the fat and flour together before adding water. Cooking the flour in fat until it browns develops flavor and color, and stirring prevents lumps. Adding water too early leaves a raw, pasty taste and uneven thickening.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, pepper, beef, milk, fish sauce, vinegar):

Capsicumfits better
Shallotfits better
Potatofits better
Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper, beef, milk, fish sauce, vinegar. 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.

Drawn Butter Sauces