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 ↓
Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Add the brown sugar and cook until it turns dark brown, being careful not to burn it.
Shake in the flour and beat the mixture.
Add the boiling water and cook for five minutes.
Flavor with brandy or vanilla.
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 + brandytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,127 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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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
- Brown sugar
- Provides the sweetness and the deep caramel flavor as it darkens.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor into the sauce as it melts.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce so it becomes smooth and coats a spoon.
- Boiling water
- Dissolves the caramelized sugar and thins the sauce to a pourable consistency.
The step that matters
Cooking the brown sugar. Sugar darkens quickly once it starts to caramelize, and past a certain point it turns bitter and burnt. Watching the color closely and removing the pan from heat at the right shade keeps the flavor sweet and rich rather than acrid.
“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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