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 ↓
Composition of Butter White Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Stir in the flour and cook until frothy.
Move the saucepan to a cooler part of the stove.
Gradually add the liquid while stirring.
Cook again until thick.
Stir until smooth.
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).
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 flavor, and forms the fat base that carries the flour.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as its starch swells in the hot liquid.
- Liquid
- Hydrates the flour starch, forming the body of the sauce as it thickens.
The step that matters
Gradually add the liquid while stirring. Adding liquid slowly while stirring keeps the flour dispersed, so the starch hydrates evenly. Pouring it in all at once can form lumps that are hard to smooth out.
“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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