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 ↓
Pastry for Pies
two piesIngredients
Directions
Prepare
1 pint flour, 2 teaspoonful salt.
2 cupful butter, 2 cupful lard.
Make the dough
Chop the butter and lard into the flour, wet with ice water and a little soda.
Make a very stiff dough.
Roll the upper crust very thin.
Spread over it a layer of lard.
Sprinkle with flour.
Wet it with ice water.
Bake
Bake until flaky.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Lard | 1 tbsp (12.8g) | 115 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Pie | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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 structure of the crust as its proteins and starches set in the oven.
- Butter
- Cold pieces create layers and flakiness as water in the butter turns to steam.
- Lard
- Coats flour particles, keeping the crust tender and flaky rather than tough.
The step that matters
Chop the butter and lard into the flour. The fat must stay in cold, separate pieces. When it melts in the oven it leaves gaps and layers, which make the crust flaky. Overworked or warm fat blends into the flour and 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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