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Dessert

Drawn Butter Sauce

A sauce made with butter, hot water, sugar, vanilla or lemon juice, flour or cornstarch, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Drawn Butter Sauce

Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Drawn Butter Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour or cornstarch with a little water to make a smooth paste.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the butter, hot water, sugar, and vanilla or lemon juice.

Cook and serve

  1. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat.

  2. Stir in the smooth paste and let it boil for 5 minutes.

  3. Add a little grated nutmeg before serving.

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. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Vanilla + nutmegtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vanilla + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 richness and a rounded, buttery flavor to the sauce.
Flour or cornstarch
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, pourable sauce as it boils.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the richness of the butter.
Vanilla or lemon juice
Adds aroma and flavor; lemon juice also brings a touch of acidity.

The step that matters

Stir in the smooth paste and let it boil for 5 minutes. Starch thickens only when it reaches a boil and stays hot long enough for the granules to swell. Adding the paste to a cool or unboiled mixture can leave lumps, and too short a boil leaves the sauce thin and floury-tasting.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, vanilla, flour):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Clovefits less well
  4. Jalapenofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, vanilla, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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