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 ↓
Wine Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter, sugar, and Madeira wine together in a saucepan.
Put a little water in the saucepan and bring it to a boil.
Roll the butter in a little flour.
Stir it into the boiling water quickly.
Add the sugar.
Add the wine.
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).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + madeira winetop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together343 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Madeira wine + flourtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together423 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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 richness, giving the sauce a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the wine.
- Madeira wine
- Adds acidity and aromatic depth, flavoring the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as its starch swells in the hot liquid.
The step that matters
Stirring the floured butter into the boiling water. Flour clumps when it hits hot liquid unevenly. Stirring quickly disperses the coated butter so starch hydrates evenly, giving a smooth sauce instead of lumps.
“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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