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Melted Butter

Melted butter is made by heating a mixture of water, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Melted Butter

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 ↓

Melted Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Ensure the saucepan is very clean.

  2. Mix the flour smoothly with the cold water in the saucepan.

  3. Let the mixture sit for an hour before heating.

Heat and finish

  1. Place the saucepan on the heat and stir continuously.

  2. Shake the saucepan occasionally to keep the liquid moving in the same direction.

  3. If the mixture separates, discard it.

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.

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.

  1. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Flour
Thickens the liquid as its starch swells when heated.
Butter
Adds fat and rich flavor to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Stir continuously while heating. Flour particles can clump and scorch on the base of the pan if the mixture is not kept moving, so constant stirring keeps it smooth and evenly heated.

“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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