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 ↓
Butter Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the roux
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Add the flour and stir constantly.
Allow the mixture to boil briskly.
Add water and finish
Quickly add the boiling water while stirring constantly.
Continue stirring until the sauce is rich and smooth.
Optionally, add capers, shrimp, mustard, or other desired ingredients.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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
- Adds fat and rich flavor, and helps the flour blend into a smooth base.
- Flour
- Starch thickens the liquid as it cooks, giving the sauce body.
The step that matters
Quickly add the boiling water while stirring constantly. Adding the hot liquid all at once while stirring spreads the flour's starch evenly through it. If the liquid goes in slowly or unstirred, the starch clumps and the sauce turns lumpy.
“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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