Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Puff Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the butter and dough
Work the butter in water to remove salt.
Form the butter into a square lump.
Chill the butter in flour for 30 minutes.
Rub 2 ounces of butter into 1 pound of flour until fine.
Add cold water to form a smooth dough, similar in consistency to the butter.
Dust a pastry board with flour.
Roll out the dough to 12 inches long and 6 inches wide.
Roll out the chilled butter into a sheet about 8 inches long and 5 inches wide.
Place the butter sheet on the dough.
Leave a ½ inch border around the edges.
Mix ½ teaspoon cream of tartar with an equal amount of flour.
Sprinkle the mixture over the butter.
Fold and roll
Fold the uncovered dough over the butter.
Fold the other half over that to create three layers of dough and two layers of butter.
Roll out to the original size.
Dust with flour.
Fold again.
Repeat this process four times.
In warm weather, chill the dough after every second rolling.
In very warm weather, chill after each rolling.
Finish
After the last rolling, cut the dough into two even pieces.
Stack the pieces.
The paste is now ready to shape as desired.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Butter and flour 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
- Butter
- Forms the separate fat layers that steam apart during baking to create flaky texture.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure of the dough that wraps and holds the butter layers.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the dough, which helps keep the gluten tender during rolling.
The step that matters
Keeping the butter cold while folding and rolling. If the butter softens and blends into the dough, the separate layers are lost and the pastry will not puff. Chilling between rollings keeps the butter firm and the layers distinct.
“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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