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 Roux
Ingredients
Directions
Clarify the butter and pour it into a frying pan.
Gradually add the flour while stirring.
Cook over medium heat until it forms a thick paste, but do not let it brown.
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
- Provides fat that coats the flour particles and carries flavour in the roux.
- Flour
- Starch that thickens the fat into a paste and later the sauce it is used in.
The step that matters
Cook the roux without browning. Cooking over medium heat until thick but pale keeps the flavour mild and the thickening power high. Browning changes the starch and gives a nuttier taste and weaker thickening.
“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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