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 ↓
Fine Puff Paste
Ingredients
Directions
In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt; sift again.
Rub cold lard into the flour until it forms a fine paste.
Add ice water mixed with beaten egg white to form a stiff dough.
Roll out the dough into a thin sheet and spread with ¼ cup of butter.
Sprinkle with a little flour, then roll up tightly like a scroll.
Fold the ends towards the center, flatten, and re-roll.
Repeat the butter spreading and rolling until all butter is used.
Place the dough on a dish, cover with a cloth, and chill for at least 1 hour before using.
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
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