Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 122,858 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Truss and roast the fawn in quarters like venison.
Place it over a strong fire and baste continuously.
Ten to fifteen minutes before it's done, baste only with butter and dredge with flour to create a froth.
Serve with the same gravy and currant jelly sauce as for venison.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Butter + flourtop 6% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together122,858 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lamb + buttertop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,230 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Lamb + flourtop 15% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together1,379 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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