Name: Excellent Short Crust for Sweet Pastry
Ingredients: two ounces of sifted sugar; ten ounces of butter will render it very rich; a pound of butter into a pound of flour; a pound of flour; eight quite sufficient; salt

Why it works: Butter and flour 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 ↓

Excellent Short Crust for Sweet Pastry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

Crumble half a pound of butter into a pound of flour, breaking it quite small.
Mix well with a slight pinch of salt and two ounces of sifted sugar.
Add sufficient milk to make them up into a very smooth and somewhat firm paste.

Bake

Bake slowly, keeping it pale.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

606Calories

13 gProtein

13 gFat

108 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 4 portions

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

By Eliza Acton. 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.

Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and flour 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 the base that holds everything together.
Butter: Coats flour particles to shorten gluten strands, giving a crumbly, tender texture.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the pastry brown gently in the oven.
Milk (in the method): Supplies the moisture that binds the crumbs into a smooth, workable paste.

The step that matters

Adding the milk. Add only enough milk to form a smooth, firm paste. Too much liquid or overworking the dough develops gluten, which makes the pastry tough rather than short.

“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.

More short crust pastry recipes

Dough 3 See all 73 →

White Cake431 recipes

Pound Cake373 recipes

Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes

Spice Cake344 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Excellent Short Crust for Sweet Pastry