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 ↓
Cream Toast
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Add the flour and salt, stirring well to combine.
Gradually add the milk, stirring continuously.
Cook until the mixture thickens and there is no taste of raw starch.
Serve
Pour the cream sauce over the toast.
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
- Flour
- Starch that thickens the milk into a smooth, thick cream sauce as it cooks.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it body and a creamy texture.
- Butter
- Fat that coats the flour so it blends smoothly into the milk without lumps.
The step that matters
Cook until the mixture thickens and there is no taste of raw starch. Flour must be heated long enough for its starch granules to swell and thicken the liquid. Stopping early leaves a thin sauce with a raw, pasty flavour.
“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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