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 ↓
Pie Crusts
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
In a bowl, mix flour and salt.
Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Add water gradually, mixing until the dough forms.
Roll out the dough to desired thickness.
Fill and bake
Place in pie dish and fill as desired.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 25 minutes.
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
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the dough once hydrated.
- Butter
- Cut into flour in pieces, it creates flaky layers as it melts during baking.
- Water
- Hydrates the flour so the dough holds together and can be rolled.
The step that matters
Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Butter pieces should stay distinct rather than fully blended into the flour. As they melt in the oven they leave pockets of steam that create flaky layers, while overworking makes the crust tough.
“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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