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
On a clean surface, place the flour and make a hole in the center.
Add the salt and mix with cold water to form a soft, flexible paste.
Knead gently until the paste is clear from the surface, then let it rest for 2 minutes.
Prepare the butter by squeezing out the buttermilk until it is the same consistency as the paste.
Place the butter on the paste, fold the edges over to cover it, and roll out to ½ inch thick and about 2 feet long.
Fold one third of the paste over, roll it out again, then fold the other third over to form a square.
Position the square with the ends facing you and sprinkle with a little flour.
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
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