Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Pork Pie Paste
Ingredients
Directions
In a bowl, mix the flour and salt together.
In a saucepan, heat the lard with the milk until the lard is completely melted.
Pour the hot lard and milk mixture into the flour and mix well.
Use the paste while warm.
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.
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 + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the paste once mixed with the liquid fat.
- Lard
- Adds fat that makes the paste tender and short when it sets.
- Milk
- Adds liquid that combines with the flour and lard to bind the dough.
The step that matters
Pour the hot lard and milk mixture into the flour and mix well. The lard and milk must be fully melted and hot so the fat stays liquid and spreads evenly through the flour. Thorough mixing then develops a uniform, pliable paste that is easier to shape while warm.
“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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