Why it works: Butter and flour 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 ↓
Puff Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Wash the butter and work 1 tablespoon into the flour using your fingertips.
Add cold water to form a stiff dough.
Turn the dough onto a floured board and knead slightly.
Cover and let it stand for 5 minutes.
Pat and roll out the dough, then fold in the remaining butter from the ends and sides.
Cover and let it stand for another 5 minutes.
Pat, roll, and fold to create three layers.
Roll and fold five times for patties, pie crust, or fancy desserts.
Roll and fold seven times for vol-au-vents, allowing it to stand for 1 minute between each rolling and folding.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
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