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 ↓
Quenelles
Ingredients
Directions
Make the panada
In a small saucepan, combine butter and water or stock and bring to a boil.
Add flour and stir until thick enough to form a ball.
Cook for a few more minutes on low heat, stirring to prevent burning.
Once thickened, remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Make the mixture
Puree the white meat by rubbing it through a wire sieve.
Mix the panada with the pureed meat thoroughly.
Add 1 oz of butter, a raw egg, and white sauce or cream, and mix well.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
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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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + meattop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,594 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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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
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and water into a paste that binds the mixture together.
- White meat
- Provides the main body of the quenelle, and its fine texture is what the sieving produces.
- Raw egg
- Binds the mixture and helps it set firm when cooked.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, keeping the finished quenelle tender.
- White sauce or cream
- Adds moisture and softness to the mixture.
The step that matters
Cook the panada until it forms a ball. Cooking the flour paste drives off excess water and cooks the starch so it thickens. If it is undercooked, the panada stays wet and loosens the mixture, and the quenelles may fall apart or turn out heavy.
“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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