Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,232 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Brown Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Brown the beef in a stewpan with the butter.
Add the hot water and let it stew for 1 hour.
Toast the bread until hard and brown, then add it to the stew.
Season with coarse sea salt to taste and strain the sauce.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
-
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together4,032 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
-
Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together10,847 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef
- Browning in butter builds the savory, meaty flavor that forms the base of the sauce.
- Butter
- Fat that carries the browning reactions and adds richness to the sauce.
- Bread
- Toasted until brown, it adds roasted aroma and body to the stewed liquid.
The step that matters
Browning the beef in butter. Deep browning through the Maillard reaction creates most of the sauce's flavor. Pale or steamed meat gives a flat, weak-tasting sauce, so the pieces should colour well before water is added.
“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.
More brown sauce recipes
You might also like
Cornbread345 recipes
Bread Pudding336 recipes
Nut Bread109 recipes
Wheat Bread65 recipesThe Sunday pairing: one pairing, the chemistry behind it, and how to cook it. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account for sign-in; Pro adds the full results and chemistry.