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★ Universal Crust

A versatile crust for pies, tarts, shortcakes, dumplings, and various baked goods.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Evora Bucknum Perkins · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and 78,219 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

★ Universal Crust

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix all ingredients except salt and add flour for a sponge batter; beat until light, then add salt and warm flour for a moderately stiff dough.

  2. Knead a little and cut into biscuits for the top of fruit tarts or meat or vegetable pies, or place on tins for shortcake crusts.

  3. For dumplings, use only ¼ cup of oil or 1½ tablespoons of raw nut butter.

  4. Knead the crust stiff at first and allow it to rise twice.

  5. Make shortcake crusts or thin biscuit tins, keep on hand, and when needed, warm them or lay over fillings and bake until warmed through.

By Evora Bucknum Perkins. 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 78,219 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Pastry flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together and sets when baked.
Compressed yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise before baking.
Oil
Adds fat that keeps the crust tender and short.
Skimmed milk
Supplies the liquid that hydrates the flour and forms the dough.

The step that matters

Knead the crust stiff at first. Kneading develops gluten, which gives the dough its elastic structure. Keeping the dough stiff early stops it becoming sticky and slack, so it can hold its shape and rise well through both rises.

“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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