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 ↓
To Brown Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Place a lump of butter in a hot frying pan.
Toss the butter until it browns.
Stir in brown flour until smooth and it begins to boil.
Use this mixture to color gravies and sauces for meats.
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
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Browns in the hot pan, developing nutty, toasted flavor and color that carries into the sauce.
- Brown flour
- Thickens the browned butter into a smooth mixture and adds color to gravies and sauces.
The step that matters
Toss the butter until it browns. Butter can go from golden to burnt quickly. Milk solids brown fast at high heat, so watching closely keeps the flavor nutty rather than bitter.
“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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