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 ↓
Very Good Puff-paste
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Weigh the flour and butter accurately.
Squeeze the butter to remove moisture.
Wring the butter in a clean cloth.
Sift the flour to ensure it is dry.
Make the dough
Mix the flour and water into a smooth paste using a knife.
Roll the paste to about 1 inch thick.
Break 4 ounces of butter into small pieces and place the butter pieces on the paste.
Dust the paste with a little flour.
Fold the paste over.
Roll the paste out again.
Repeat the rolling and buttering process until all butter and flour are used.
Dust flour on the rolling pin and on the paste.
Handle the paste lightly and avoid pressing too hard.
Bake
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) before baking.
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.
-
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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the paste once it is mixed with water and rolled.
- Unsalted butter
- Creates separate layers of fat that turn into steam and lift the pastry as it bakes.
The step that matters
Handle the paste lightly and avoid pressing too hard. Pressing hard squeezes out the layers of butter between the dough sheets, so the pastry bakes flat instead of rising in flaky layers.
“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 puff pastry recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe 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.