Name: Paprika Butter
Ingredients: 2 ounces butter; pinch of paprika; few drops of white wine or consommé

Why it works: Butter and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Paprika Butter

Ingredients

2 ounces butter
pinch of paprika
few drops of white wine or consommé

Directions

Soften the butter in a bowl.
Mix in a pinch of paprika and a few drops of white wine or consommé to enhance the color.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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 + white winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,083 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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, carrying the flavor and giving the spread its smooth texture.
Paprika: Adds color and a mild, sweet, aromatic flavor to the butter.
White wine or consommé: Adds a few drops of liquid that helps enhance the color of the butter.

“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.