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Parsley Sauce

A sauce made with butter, flour, stock, milk, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Parsley Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter or suet in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour and stir to form a roux.

  3. Gradually add the white stock, stirring constantly until thickened.

  4. Stir in the milk and bring to a gentle simmer.

Add the parsley

  1. Wash and dry the parsley, then chop it finely.

  2. Add the chopped parsley to the sauce and mix well.

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.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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 or suet
Enriches the roux with fat, carrying flavour and giving the sauce a smooth body.
Flour
Forms a roux with the fat that thickens the stock into a smooth sauce.
White stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as the roux hydrates.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, softening the sauce's flavour.
Parsley
Contributes fresh, herbal aroma and a green flavour to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Gradually add the white stock, stirring constantly until thickened. Adding liquid too fast or without constant stirring lets flour clump into lumps, because starch granules swell unevenly. Gradual addition with stirring lets each granule hydrate and the sauce thicken smoothly.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk. 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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