Why it works: Flour and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,078 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Brown Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Slice the bacon and fry it in a pan until the fat is rendered.
Remove the bacon and add flour to the fat, stirring until smooth.
Gradually add the stock, stirring constantly until it boils.
Stir in Worcestershire sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve
Serve the sauce warm.
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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Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,078 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sauce + peppertop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,303 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 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
- Bacon
- Rendered fat from the bacon provides the cooking fat and savoury flavour for the sauce.
- Flour
- Flour mixed into the fat thickens the stock as it heats, giving the sauce body.
- Stock
- Stock forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it comes to a boil.
- Worcestershire sauce
- Adds tangy, savoury depth that rounds out the flavour of the sauce.
The step that matters
Adding the stock gradually. Adding stock slowly while stirring constantly keeps the flour evenly dispersed in the fat. Dumping it in at once can create lumps that are hard to smooth out.
“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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