Why it works: Butter and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,513 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓
Black Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Make the black butter
Put the butter in an omelet pan over low heat.
When it foams, skim it off and return it to the heat.
Once it turns black but not burned, season with salt and mignonette.
Serve
Strain it through a fine strainer over eggs or fish.
Add a dash of vinegar to a hot pan and pour it over the eggs through a fine strainer.
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 + vinegartop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,513 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Browns and toasts its milk solids, creating a nutty, aromatic sauce and carrying flavor.
- Vinegar
- Adds a sharp acidic note that balances the rich, toasted butter.
The step that matters
Taking the butter to black but not burned. Milk solids darken quickly once the water has boiled off. Past the point of deep brown, they turn bitter and acrid, so the butter should be watched closely and removed from heat as soon as it reaches dark brown.
“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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