Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
White Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Melt 2 oz of butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
Stir in 1½ oz of flour with a wooden spoon until combined.
Add 1 pint of white stock and stir until it boils.
Simmer and strain
Wash and peel 6 mushrooms, then add them to the sauce.
Allow the sauce to boil again, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes with the lid half on.
Skim off any butter that rises to the surface with a spoon.
Strain the sauce through a cloth into another saucepan.
Finish and serve
Heat the strained sauce and stir until it boils, then add ½ pint of cream and the juice of ½ lemon.
Let the sauce boil for 3 to 5 minutes.
Pour into a basin and stir while it cools; it is then ready for use.
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.
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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mushroom + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Mushroom + creamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,500 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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
- Forms the roux with flour and adds richness and a rounded, buttery flavour.
- Flour
- Its starch thickens the stock into a smooth, coating sauce when cooked with the butter.
- White stock
- Forms the liquid body of the sauce and carries its savoury flavour.
- Mushrooms
- Add an earthy, savoury flavour to the sauce as they simmer in it.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel to the finished sauce.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the cream and butter.
The step that matters
Stirring the stock into the roux. Flour starch must be evenly dispersed in the liquid and heated to swell and thicken. Stirring while the stock goes in and comes to the boil prevents lumps and gives a smooth, even sauce.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, mushroom, cream):
- Coconutfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, mushroom, cream. 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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