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 ↓
White Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the roux
Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat without browning it.
Add the flour to the melted butter and mix well.
Add stock and finish
Gradually add the white stock while stirring continuously.
Continue stirring until the sauce comes to a boil.
Season with salt and pepper to taste, then serve.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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
- Adds richness and flavour, and carries the flour so it can be cooked smoothly.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as its starch swells when heated in the liquid.
- White stock
- Forms the liquid body of the sauce, which the flour thickens into a coating consistency.
The step that matters
Add the stock gradually while stirring. Flour starch must be evenly dispersed before it thickens. Pouring in the liquid slowly and stirring constantly keeps the starch from clumping into lumps as the sauce heats.
“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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