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 ↓
Bacon Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Fry the bacon pieces in a pan until brown.
Pour the bacon fat into a stone jar and place the bacon on a plate.
In a bowl, mix the bacon fat, butter, and flour.
Gradually add hot water, whey, or soup stock to the mixture.
Flavor with chopped parsley or strained tomato juice, then add the bacon.
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 + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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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Butter + wheytop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together35 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Flour + wheytop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together39 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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
- Bacon
- Browned pieces add savory, smoky flavor to the finished sauce.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, rounded fat flavor to the base.
- Flour
- Thickens the fat and liquid into a smooth sauce.
The step that matters
Gradually add hot water, whey, or soup stock. Adding liquid slowly to the flour and fat mixture lets starch disperse evenly, which prevents lumps and gives a smooth, thickened sauce.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, whey):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Jalapenofits better
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, whey. 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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