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 ↓
Puff Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Place flour on a clean surface, forming a well in the center.
Add salt, a small piece of butter, egg yolk, and two-thirds of the water into the well.
Mix ingredients gradually with your fingertips, adding more water if necessary.
Once combined, sprinkle a few drops of water over the mixture and knead for 2 minutes until smooth.
Spread the paste out on the surface and press the butter (wrapped in cloth) into the center.
Fold the sides of the paste over the butter to cover it completely.
Dust flour over and under the paste, shaping it into a square about 10 inches on each side.
Place the shaped paste on a clean baking sheet over pounded ice, and cover with a deep pan filled with ice.
After 10 minutes, remove from ice, dust with flour, and roll out to about 2 feet long and 10 inches wide.
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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