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 ↓
Sianied Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the softened butter and sifted flour until perfectly combined.
Prepare this butter just before serving.
Add to sauces carefully, avoiding boiling to prevent a raw flour taste.
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
- Provides fat and richness, and carries the flour so it blends smoothly into sauces.
- Flour
- Thickens sauces when cooked, giving body to the finished dish.
The step that matters
Add to sauces carefully, avoiding boiling. Flour must be cooked to lose its raw taste and to thicken properly. Adding this butter mixture to a sauce and letting it boil too hard can leave a raw flour flavour and uneven thickening, so add it gently and keep the sauce below a boil.
“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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