Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
White Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Melt 2 oz of butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
Stir in 2 oz of flour with a wooden spoon until combined.
Add 1 pint of white stock and stir until it boils.
Wash and peel 6 mushrooms, then add them to the sauce.
Allow the sauce to boil again, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes with the lid half on.
Skim off any butter that rises to the surface with a spoon.
Strain and finish
Strain the sauce through a fine cloth into another saucepan.
Heat the strained sauce until it boils, then stir in ½ pint of cream and the juice of ½ lemon.
Let the sauce boil for 3 to 5 minutes.
Pour the sauce into a bowl and stir while it cools. It is now ready to use.
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.
-
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Mushroom + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Mushroom + creamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,500 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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
- Carries the flour into a roux and adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid as its starch swells with heat, giving the sauce body.
- White stock
- Forms the savoury liquid base that the roux thickens into sauce.
- Mushrooms
- Add earthy savour and aroma to the sauce as they cook in it.
- Cream
- Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and a mellow finish.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and cuts the richness of the cream and butter.
The step that matters
Boiling after adding the cream and lemon juice. Acid and prolonged heat can cause dairy to curdle or separate, so the sauce should be kept at a gentle boil and stirred so the cream stays smooth.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, mushroom, cream):
- Coconutfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, mushroom, cream. 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.
More white sauce recipes
You might also like
Lemon Sauce236 recipes
Mushroom Soup60 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.