Why it works: Butter and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Butter Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
In a stewpan, melt the butter over low heat.
Add the prepared sauce and stir until the butter is fully mixed in.
Use this mixture as a base for various sauces.
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 + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 silky mouthfeel that carries the flavour of the sauce.
- Prepared sauce
- Supplies the main body and flavour that the melted butter is blended into.
The step that matters
Melting the butter over low heat. Butter is an emulsion of fat, water and milk solids. Gentle heat melts it without separating the fat, so the butter can blend smoothly into the sauce instead of turning greasy or grainy.
“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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