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
Prepare the butter mixture
Cream the butter in a bowl.
Add the sugar gradually.
Add the beaten egg.
Make the sauce
Wet the flour in a little cold water.
Stir the wet flour into 1 cup of boiling water.
Boil for 10 minutes.
Add the wine.
Combine and finish
Pour the wine mixture over the butter mixture.
Stir until well combined.
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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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 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
- Butter
- Provides richness and fat that gives the sauce a smooth, rounded body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps soften the creamed butter's texture.
- Egg
- Adds richness and helps bind the butter mixture together.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid as its starch swells when heated.
- Wine
- Adds acidity and aroma that balance the sweetness and richness.
The step that matters
Stir the wet flour into the boiling water. Flour must be fully dispersed in a smooth slurry before it meets hot liquid. Starch granules swell as they heat, so adding dry or lumpy flour causes clumps that cannot be fully smoothed out later.
“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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