Why it works: Flour and butter 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 ↓
Fruit Syrup Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the fruit syrup in a saucepan.
In a small bowl, cream together the flour and butter.
Add the creamed mixture to the boiling syrup and 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.
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 + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Syrup + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,540 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Syrup + buttertop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,796 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour and butter 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
- Flour
- Thickens the syrup as it heats, giving the sauce body.
- Butter
- Creamed with the flour, it adds richness and smooths the sauce.
The step that matters
Adding the creamed mixture to the boiling syrup. Flour needs to be dispersed evenly to avoid lumps. Stirring well as it goes in helps the starch hydrate and thicken the sauce smoothly instead of forming clumps.
“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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