Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Pie Crust
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Combine flour and salt in a large bowl.
Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Mix sour milk with enough water to make 1 cup.
Add baking soda to the sour milk mixture.
Gradually add the liquid to the flour mixture, stirring until a dough forms.
Divide the dough in half.
Shape the crust
Roll out one half for the bottom crust.
Spread lard on the rolled dough.
Sprinkle flour on the lard.
Roll the dough up.
Cut from the end of the roll.
Shape the dough for the pie.
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 + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 main structure of the crust as its proteins and starch set during baking.
- Shortening
- Coats flour particles so the dough stays tender and breaks into flaky pieces.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda, helping the crust rise and stay light.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in sour milk to release gas that lightens the dough.
- Lard
- Spread between dough layers, it separates them to create a flaky texture.
The step that matters
Stop stirring once the dough forms. Overmixing after the liquid is added develops gluten, which makes the crust tough instead of tender and 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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