Name: Sauce for Fritters
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons flour; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup boiling water; 1 tablespoon creamed butter; 2 tablespoons sherry or madeira (or 1 tablespoon lemon juice, nutmeg, or juice of half an orange with a few drops of lemon juice)

Why it works: Flour and butter 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 ↓

Sauce for Fritters

Ingredients

2 tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup boiling water
1 tablespoon creamed butter
2 tablespoons sherry or madeira (or 1 tablespoon lemon juice, nutmeg, or juice of half an orange with a few drops of lemon juice)

Directions

Make the sauce

Mix the flour and salt with the sugar in a bowl.
Pour the boiling water over the mixture and stir well.
Boil for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Finish

Add the creamed butter and sherry or madeira (or your chosen flavoring).

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.

Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,505 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Flour + sherrytop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,643 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Flour: Thickens the sauce as it cooks, giving it body.
Sugar: Provides sweetness and dissolves into the hot water to form the sauce base.
Creamed butter: Adds richness and a smooth, glossy finish when stirred in.
Sherry or madeira: Adds aromatic depth and a subtle fortified-wine flavor.

The step that matters

Boil for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Flour starch must be heated fully in boiling liquid to swell and thicken the sauce. Stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the base of the pan.

“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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Sauce for Fritters