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Sauce

Melted Butter

A simple sauce made by melting butter, adding flour, and simmering with milk or water, seasoned with salt.

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

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Melted Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Mix the flour with a little cold water or milk until smooth.

  2. Warm the milk and butter in a pot.

  3. Stir in the flour and add salt.

  4. Boil for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Thicken the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a pot.

  2. Dredge the melted butter in the flour.

  3. Gradually add warmed milk or water, stirring well.

Adjust and finish

  1. Use more butter or cream for a richer sauce.

  2. Add an egg yolk.

  3. If the sauce is too thick, add more liquid.

  4. If the sauce is too thin, boil longer.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel and a buttery flavor.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as its starch swells and sets when heated in liquid.
Milk
Forms the liquid base and adds body and richness as it heats.

The step that matters

Boil for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Flour thickens only when its starch swells in hot liquid. Constant stirring prevents lumps from forming, and enough cooking time removes the raw flour taste and gives the sauce its full thickness.

“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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