Why it works: Beef and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,677 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Plain Pie Crust
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Chop the beef suet very finely.
In a bowl, mix the chopped suet with the sifted flour and salt.
Gradually add the ice water, mixing until the dough forms.
Roll out
Use as little flour as possible while rolling out the dough.
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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Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 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
- Beef suet
- Provides solid fat that keeps the crust tender and flaky as it bakes.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the dough once it is mixed with water.
- Ice water
- Moistens the flour so the dough holds together without developing too much gluten.
The step that matters
Use as little flour as possible while rolling out the dough. Extra flour dries the surface and gets worked into the dough, making the crust tough. Keeping added flour minimal preserves tenderness.
“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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