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 ↓
Short Crust for Apple Turnovers and Apple Dumplings
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
Peel, quarter, and core the apples, then cut them into thin slices.
In a bowl, mix the flour with the baking powder. Rub the clarified dripping or butter into the flour with your hands.
Add enough cold water to moisten and mix into a stiff paste.
Flour a board and turn the paste onto it. Flour a rolling pin and roll out the paste to about ¼ inch thick.
Shape the turnovers
Cut the paste into rounds, each about the size of a small plate.
Place an apple slice on one half of each round and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of moist sugar.
Wet the edges of the paste, fold it over the apple, and press the edges together with your thumb.
Grease a baking sheet with a little dripping and place the turnovers on it.
Bake and serve
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes.
Serve the turnovers on a hot dish.
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).
-
Butter + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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 paste, giving the turnovers their body once baked.
- Clarified dripping or butter
- Rubbed into the flour to add fat, making the pastry tender and flaky.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the oven, helping the pastry rise and lighten.
- Apples
- Provide the filling, cooking down to a soft, moist, fruity center.
- Moist sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the apple filling caramelize slightly at the edges.
The step that matters
Pressing the edges together. Wet the edges so they seal well; if the seal is weak, juices from the apples can leak out during baking and the turnover can open.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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.
You might also like
Apple Pudding256 recipes
Apple Cake80 recipes
Apple Meringue75 recipes
Dried Apple Cake51 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.