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 ↓
Plain Pastry
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Mix the baking powder and salt with the flour.
Rub in the lard and butter until fine and dry like meal.
Mix to a stiff paste with ice water.
Rub in only the lard.
Laminate and roll
Pat and roll out to one-third inch thick.
Dot on one-half the butter in thin pieces.
Dust with flour and fold in thirds.
Pat and roll out again.
Dot with remainder of butter.
Roll up like a jelly roll.
Cut from the end as directed for puff paste.
Bake
Bake in a quick oven at first to keep it from melting.
Never grease the pie plate.
Cut holes in the upper crust to let steam escape.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
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 |
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 dough once mixed with liquid and fat.
- Lard
- Shortens the dough, keeping layers tender and crumbly rather than tough.
- Butter
- Adds flavour and fat that creates flaky layers when folded into the dough.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the oven to lift the dough and add lightness.
The step that matters
Keep the fat cold and unmelted before baking. Solid pieces of lard and butter melt in the hot oven and leave steam pockets, creating flaky layers. If the fat softens during rolling, the layers blend and the crust turns dense. A quick oven at first sets the crust before the fat melts out.
“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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