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Broths, Gravies, and Soups

A savory broth made by simmering head meat with a butter‑flour roux, seasoned with cayenne, salt, and wine or brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Broths, Gravies, and Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan.

  2. Add enough flour to dry up the butter and mix well until browned.

  3. Pour in your soup and stir well.

  4. Let it simmer for 30 minutes.

Strain and finish

  1. Strain through a fine sieve into a clean stewpan.

  2. Add the meat from the head and stew for another 30 minutes.

  3. Season with Cayenne pepper, salt, and wine or brandy.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Pepper + winetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 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 and richness, and carries flavour through the broth.
Flour
Thickens the broth and, cooked until browned, adds colour and a toasted note.
Meat from the head
Adds savoury body and flavour as it stews in the broth.
Wine or brandy
Adds acidity or aroma that brightens the finished broth.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour in the butter. The flour must be mixed well and cooked until browned before the soup goes in. Raw flour tastes pasty and thickens unevenly, so cooking it first gives a smooth, richer broth.

“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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