Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the sugar in a pan over medium heat, stirring constantly until it turns a delicate brown.
Add the hot water and blend until smooth.
Mix the butter and flour together, then add to the caramel mixture.
Cook together for four minutes.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Sugar
- Melts and caramelises to form the sauce's flavour, colour and sweetness.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, rounder mouthfeel to the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as it cooks, giving it body.
The step that matters
Melting the sugar until delicate brown. Sugar can burn quickly once it starts to colour. Stirring constantly and watching closely keeps the caramel evenly coloured and prevents a bitter, scorched 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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