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 ↓
Pie Crust
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, mix the flour and baking powder together.
Rub in the butter and lard until well combined.
Add cold water gradually to form a dough that is just stiff enough to roll out.
Roll out
Roll out the dough and use it for pie crusts.
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).
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 gluten network that gives the crust its structure.
- Butter
- Stays in solid pieces in the dough, creating tenderness and flaky layers as it melts in baking.
- Lard
- Coats flour particles and keeps the pastry tender and flaky.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking for a light, slightly lifted texture.
- Cold water
- Hydrates the flour so the dough holds together.
The step that matters
Adding the cold water gradually. Too much water or overworking the dough develops excess gluten, which makes the crust tough. Adding water slowly lets you stop once the dough is just stiff enough to roll out.
“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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