Why it works: Butter and flour 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 ↓
Melted Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a small pan with the water.
Thicken the mixture with flour while stirring continuously.
Ensure the mixture does not become oily.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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
- Provides fat and rich flavor, and its emulsion sets the sauce's smooth body.
- Flour
- Thickens the melted butter into a smooth, pourable sauce as it cooks.
The step that matters
Keep the mixture from becoming oily. Butter is an emulsion of fat and water. If it is overheated or stirred poorly, the fat separates and the sauce turns greasy instead of smooth. Stirring continuously while thickening keeps the mixture uniform.
“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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