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 salt with the flour.
Cut the butter (or lard) into the flour using a knife until well combined.
Gradually add the cold water, chopping the mixture to avoid wet streaks.
Roll and line the pie dish
Sprinkle flour on a clean surface and on a rolling pin.
Take a little more than half of the dough, shape it into a round pile, and roll it out from the dough.
If the dough is not the right shape, turn it at right angles and roll again.
Once the dough is the right size, cover the sides and bottom of a pie dish.
Add the top crust
Roll out the remaining dough for the top crust, making 3 or 4 gashes for steam escape.
After adding the filling, place the top crust on and pinch the edges of both crusts together.
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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the crust its structure.
- Butter or lard
- Coats flour particles and creates flaky layers as it stays in pieces.
- Cold water
- Binds the flour and fat into a dough that can be rolled out.
The step that matters
Adding the cold water. Adding water gradually and keeping the fat cold keeps the fat in small pieces. Too much water or overworking develops gluten and makes the crust tough rather than flaky.
“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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