Modern Cookery

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. Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together2,427 recipes

   Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

   Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

3. Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs
   Smell alikelow
   Cooked together6,157 recipes

   Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

4. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together8,645 recipes

   Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together92,116 recipes

   Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Flour

Thickens the sauce as it is stirred with the butter, giving it body.

Butter

Adds richness and smooth mouthfeel to the sauce.

Sugar

Sweetens the sauce and balances the sharpness of the lemon.

Lemon rind

Provides the main lemon aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Swap the lemon

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

1. Raisinfits better
2. Vanillafits better
3. Figfits better
4. Lemonthe original

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