Why it works: Flour and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,081 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Salmis
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a stew-pan.
Stir in the flour until it turns a nice brown color.
Gradually add the stock and red wine.
Add the whole shallots and bouquet garni.
Simmer until the sauce thickens, then remove the shallots and bouquet garni.
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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Flour + shallottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,081 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Red wine + shallottop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together231 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + red winetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,599 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Butter + shallottop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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
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