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 ↓
Pate Brisee, or French Crust for Hot or Cold Meat-pies
Ingredients
Directions
Sift the flour into a bowl.
Cut the butter into the flour until it resembles fine crumbs.
Add the salt and mix well.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and mix with the cold water.
Strain the egg mixture into the flour and butter mixture.
Knead until a firm paste forms.
For a richer crust, use less water and follow the same steps.
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 + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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 dough once it is mixed with liquid.
- Unsalted butter
- Stays in fine pieces among the flour, creating a tender, flaky texture as it is worked in.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help bind the dough together.
- Cold water
- Moistens the flour so the dough can come together without becoming tough.
The step that matters
Knead until a firm paste forms. Kneading too much develops gluten and makes the crust tough, while kneading too little leaves the dough crumbly and hard to roll. Stop once the dough holds together firmly.
“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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