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Melted Butter

A simple butter sauce made by melting butter with flour and milk, optionally flavored with herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Melted Butter

Why it works: Chervil and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Melted Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Use a pint stew-pan dedicated for this purpose.

  2. Cut the butter into small pieces for easier melting.

Make the sauce

  1. Add the butter, flour, and milk to the stew-pan.

  2. Heat gently until the butter melts and the mixture combines smoothly.

Serve

  1. Serve with optional minced herbs on the side for flavor.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Chervil + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Parsley + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Parsley + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together774 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Celery + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together456 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Melts to provide richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter and milk into a smooth, cohesive sauce.
Milk
Adds moisture and liquid so the flour can thicken the butter into a sauce.

The step that matters

Heat gently until the butter melts and the mixture combines smoothly. High heat can scorch the milk solids and separate the butter, while gentle heat lets the flour hydrate evenly and thicken the mixture without lumps.

Swap the garlic

The recipe marks garlic as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, parsley, chervil, celery, tarragon):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Fennelfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, parsley, chervil, celery, tarragon. 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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