Name: Pastry for Tarts or Open Pies
Ingredients: 2 cupfuls of flour; 3/4 cupful of butter; 1/2 teaspoonful of salt; 1 tablespoonful of sugar; 2 eggs; four small tart pies like those shown in illustration

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 Tarts or Open Pies

four small tart pies

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

Sift the flour, salt, and sugar together.
Cut in the butter as directed above.
Mix in the beaten yolks.
Add enough water to make a paste that is not very stiff.
Roll the dough two or three times.

Rest and shape

Wrap it in a cloth or cover it closely.
Put it in the ice-box for an hour.
Use the dough to make four small tart pies as shown in the illustration.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

684Calories

19 gProtein

18 gFat

108 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
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.

By Mary Ronald. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 pastry as its starch and proteins set during baking.
Butter: Creates flaky layers and tenderness by staying solid until it melts in the oven.
Eggs: Add richness and help bind the dough together.

The step that matters

Add enough water to make a paste that is not very stiff.. Too much water develops gluten and toughens the pastry, while too little leaves it crumbly and hard to roll. The dough should hold together without being sticky or dry.

“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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Pastry for Tarts or Open Pies