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Cause of Failure in the Preparation of Melted Butter

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France

Known as a French recipe, with similar versions prepared across other nations.

Ingredients 4 ingredients

  1. a tablespoonful of flour
  2. 3 oz. of cold butter
  3. Vinegar
  4. two tablespoonfuls of water

Possible health benefits

General information, not medical advice.

  1. Flour Source of phosphorus · Source of copper · Source of manganese · +1

    Source of phosphorus · 106 mg per 100 g, 15% of the reference intake per 100 g

    • Phosphorus contributes to normal energy-yielding metabolism.
    • Phosphorus contributes to normal function of cell membranes.
    • Phosphorus contributes to the maintenance of normal bones.
    1 more authorised claims
    • Phosphorus contributes to the maintenance of normal teeth.

    Phosphorus is a mineral contained in each cell in our body. Most phosphorus is in the bones and teeth, and some is in your genes. NIH fact sheet

    Source of copper · 0.2 mg per 100 g, 17% of the reference intake per 100 g

    • Copper contributes to maintenance of normal connective tissues.
    • Copper contributes to normal energy-yielding metabolism.
    • Copper contributes to normal functioning of the nervous system.
    5 more authorised claims
    • Copper contributes to normal hair pigmentation.
    • Copper contributes to normal iron transport in the body.
    • Copper contributes to normal skin pigmentation.
    • Copper contributes to the normal function of the immune system.
    • Copper contributes to the protection of cells from oxidative stress.

    Copper is a mineral that you need to stay healthy. Your body uses copper to carry out many important functions, including making energy, connective tissues, and blood vessels. NIH fact sheet

    Source of manganese · 0.6 mg per 100 g, 28% of the reference intake per 100 g

    • Manganese contributes to normal energy-yielding metabolism.
    • Manganese contributes to the maintenance of normal bones.
    • Manganese contributes to the normal formation of connective tissue.
    1 more authorised claims
    • Manganese contributes to the protection of cells from oxidative stress.

    Manganese is a mineral that your body needs to stay healthy. Your body uses manganese to make energy and protect your cells from damage. NIH fact sheet

    Source of selenium · 10 µg per 100 g, 19% of the reference intake per 100 g

    • Selenium contributes to normal spermatogenesis.
    • Selenium contributes to the maintenance of normal hair.
    • Selenium contributes to the maintenance of normal nails.
    3 more authorised claims
    • Selenium contributes to the normal function of the immune system.
    • Selenium contributes to the normal thyroid function.
    • Selenium contributes to the protection of cells from oxidative stress.

    Selenium is a nutrient that the body needs to stay healthy. Your thyroid gland needs selenium to produce hormones and function properly. NIH fact sheet

    Nutrients per 100 g of “Flour, 00”, USDA FoodData Central.

Claims: EU Register of health claims (Regulation (EU) No 432/2012, © European Union, CC BY 4.0), shown only where the ingredient meets the claim's conditions (Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006). Nutrients: USDA FoodData Central (CC0). Facts: NIH Office of Dietary Supplements (public domain).

Cook safely

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

  • Boiling water and steam. Turn pan handles inward, away from the edge of the hob. Lift lids away from you, and pour hot water away from your body: steam burns too.

Method

  1. As shown above, the great point for melted butter is, as soon as it has come to the boil, to take it off the fire, and add to it the cold butter which gives it its flavour.
  2. Why is it so often bad?
  3. how is it that, in many families, melted butter is brought to table, bearing a pasty or starchlike appearance, and with no other flavour than that of flour and water ?
  4. My answer is: That the quantity of flour used has been too much in excess of the quantity of butter;
  5. and has destroyed the flavour ;
  6. often, also, the fault les in mixing, at once, the whole of the butter with the flour ;
  7. producing thereby those tasteless and pasty sauces with reason condemned.
  8. I have often seen melted butter prepared in this way, with an extravagant quantity of butter, while half, prop2rly used, would have been quite sufficient to produce a good sauce.
  9. If the sauce be too thick, add one or two tablespoonfuls of water;
  10. if, on the contrary, it is too thin, mix a tablespoonful of flour with 3 oz.
  11. of cold butter;
  12. take the sauce off the fire;
  13. allow it to cool for three minutes;
  14. add the mixture of flour and butter ;
  15. and stir off the fire;
  16. when melted, put the sauce over the fire again, till just boiling;
  17. then add the remainder of the butter as aforesaid.
  18. The most essential, in fact, indispensable requisite is, that the flour and butter should be of the very best;
  19. otherwise, good melted butter is unobtainable, whatever recipe be followed.
  20. Bad flour will not thicken properly,—thence the non-success of the sauce.
  21. Butter, unless of good quality, and very fresh, can impart no pleasant flavour, nor consequently produce a good sauce.
  22. Melted butter is sometimes preferred slightly acid: in this case, add a few drops of vinegar, previously reduced;
  23. or a little lemon-juice, to the sauce, in the sauce-boat, when about serving.

Plating

Cookware for this recipe

  • Saucepan
  • Wooden spoon
Source not stated by archive.org
Credit

From The royal cookery book (le livre de cuisine) (1868), printed page 70, digitised by the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/b21505093

What was changed: Read by machine from the book's scanned text into ingredients and method. The title's capitals were tidied; spelling and scanning errors are left as they are.