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 ↓
Egg Gravy
Ingredients
Directions
Combine 1 pint of water and 1 tablespoon of nut butter in a pot and dissolve.
Gradually add white flour to thicken until a thin gravy consistency is reached.
Stir in 1 beaten egg before removing from heat.
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 + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- White flour
- Thickens the liquid into a thin gravy as it is added and heated.
- Egg
- Stirred in at the end to enrich the gravy and add body.
- Nut butter
- Dissolves into the water to add richness and a nutty flavor.
The step that matters
Stirring in the beaten egg. Egg proteins set when heated, so adding it to very hot liquid can scramble it into lumps. Removing the pot from heat before stirring in the egg keeps the gravy smooth.
“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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