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 ↓
Timbales
Ingredients
Directions
Grease the timbale moulds generously with butter.
Roll out the pastry dough very thin, about 1/6 inch thick and 22 inches long.
Cut the dough into a strip 21 inches long and 4 inches wide, then roll it up and set aside.
Roll out the trimmings of the dough to the same thickness and cut to fit the mould.
Lightly wet the ornaments in the mould, then place the cut piece of dough on top, pressing it to adhere.
Unroll the reserved strip of dough upright in the mould, pressing it against the ornaments.
To secure the two pieces of dough, place a small, lightly wetted strip where they join.
Pour the prepared macaroni into the timbale.
Wet the edge of the timbale and cover it with a piece of dough about 1.5 inches thick.
Seal the cover well and fold the rim of the timbale over it, wetting the whole surface.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
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