Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Sauce Blanche
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Melt 2 ounces of butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
Add the flour and stir for 1 minute without browning.
Gradually add the boiling water, stirring until smooth, and boil for about 2 minutes.
If the sauce is not perfectly smooth, strain it through a sieve.
Add the remaining butter in pieces and stir until melted.
Serve
Serve immediately.
For added flavor, mix in a little lemon juice or vinegar.
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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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Enriches the sauce and adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid into a sauce as its starch swells when heated.
- Water
- Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into a sauce.
The step that matters
Adding the flour and water. Stirring the flour into the melted butter and then adding the boiling liquid gradually keeps starch grains separated, so the sauce thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps. Boiling for a couple of minutes fully cooks the flour, removing a raw starchy 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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