Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Cream Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, combine hot water and sweet cream.
Stir in 1 tablespoon of butter and a little chopped parsley.
Place the saucepan in a kettle of boiling water.
Add the strained gravy from the dripping-pan and stir well.
Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and add another tablespoon of butter.
Serve
Pour the sauce around the baked fish on a hot platter and garnish with parsley.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Cream + parsleytop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,392 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sweet cream
- Adds richness and body, giving the sauce a smooth, creamy texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a silky mouthfeel and rich flavor when stirred in off the heat.
- Strained gravy from the dripping-pan
- Contributes concentrated savory flavor from the cooking juices.
The step that matters
Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and add butter. Boiling cream can break or scorch and the sauce may thicken unevenly. Removing it from heat before adding butter helps the fat emulsify smoothly into a glossy sauce.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter):
- Nutmegfits better
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Macefits about as well
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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