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 ↓
Special Paste for Tartlets and Barquettes
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the dough
Sift the flour onto a clean surface and make a hole in the center.
Add the salt, melted butter, whole egg, egg yolks, and water into the hole.
Mix everything into a dough, handling it as little as possible.
Form the dough into a ball and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Shape and bake
Roll out the dough to 1/8 inch thick.
Use a fancy cutter to stamp out pieces the size of your tartlet molds.
Place the dough in the molds and prick the bottoms to prevent blistering.
Garnish with kitchen paper and fill with rice or flour.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).
Remove the rice or flour and let the tartlets cool in their molds.
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).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
What each ingredient does
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the dough once it is mixed with liquid and fat.
- Cold melted butter
- Provides fat that makes the crust tender and rich in texture.
- Egg
- Binds the dough and adds structure and richness.
- Egg yolks
- Add fat and richness, tenderizing the dough and helping it hold together.
The step that matters
Mix the dough as little as possible. Overworking develops gluten in the flour, making the crust tough instead of tender. Handling it lightly keeps the pastry short and crisp.
“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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