Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Melted Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Make the mixture
Mix flour and a little water with a knife on a wooden surface until smooth.
Add ½ cup of hot water or milk and stir well.
Heat and finish
Pour the mixture into a small pot and heat, shaking it continuously until it boils.
Boil for 1 minute to remove the raw taste.
If using fresh butter, add a pinch of salt if desired.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Starch thickens the liquid as it heats, giving the mixture body.
- Fresh butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smooth, buttery flavour.
- Hot water or milk
- Liquid that hydrates the flour and forms the smooth base.
The step that matters
Shake continuously while heating, then boil for 1 minute. Constant movement keeps the flour from settling, scorching or forming lumps on the base of the pot. Boiling for a full minute cooks the flour starch, which removes its raw taste.
“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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