Why it works: Flour and butter 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 ↓
Angelica Pastry
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the butter into small pieces about the size of an almond and mix it with the sifted flour.
Sprinkle the water over the mixture and combine using a knife.
Place the rough dough on a floured surface and roll it out.
Fold the dough and beat it with a rolling pin a dozen times.
Repeat the rolling, folding, and beating process six times.
Roll the dough into a sheet, then roll it up into a scroll.
Cut the scroll in half and place it on a plate.
Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before using.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
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