Why it works: Flour and butter 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 ↓
Anchovy Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Chop the anchovies without washing them.
Make the sauce
Combine the chopped anchovies with flour and butter in a saucepan.
Add a little hot water and stir over heat until it boils once or twice.
Ensure the anchovies dissolve completely for better color.
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 + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Anchovies
- Dissolve into the sauce to add a salty, savory depth.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as its starch swells with heat and liquid.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
The step that matters
Dissolve the anchovies completely. Undissolved anchovy pieces leave a gritty texture and uneven color. Stirring over heat breaks them down into the butter and flour, so the sauce turns smooth and evenly colored.
“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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