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 ↓
Mince-pie Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
Gather ingredients: one pound flour, eight ounces butter or lard, three gills water, half an ounce salt, one teaspoon baking powder.
Place the flour on the table and hollow out a hole in the centre with your fist.
Add the salt and baking powder into the hole.
Add the water and butter (or lard).
Work the mixture lightly with your fingers, keeping the butter in distinct pieces and not fully blending it with the flour.
Roll the mixture up into a ball of dough.
Laminate and fold
Spread the dough out on a floured table.
Roll the dough with a rolling pin to a length of eighteen inches and a width of eight inches.
Fold the dough into three equal folds.
Roll the dough out again in the reverse direction.
Fold the dough up again as before.
Repeat the rolling out and folding up a third time.
The paste will be ready for use.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Water | 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 dough as its proteins bind with water.
- Butter
- Stays in distinct pieces, creating flaky layers as the dough is rolled and folded.
- Water
- Hydrates the flour so the dough can come together and be rolled.
The step that matters
Work the mixture lightly with your fingers. Keeping the butter in distinct pieces matters because cold fat that stays unblended melts during baking and leaves flaky layers. Fully blending it makes the pastry tougher and less flaky.
“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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