Why it works: Flour and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Raised Pies.
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Place the flour on a clean surface.
In a saucepan, bring the water and lard to a boil.
Make a well in the flour and gradually pour in the boiling water and lard, mixing with a spoon.
Knead the mixture with your hands until stiff, adding a little flour to prevent sticking.
Shape and fill
Shape the dough into six pieces, reserving some for the covers.
Form each piece into an oval or round shape using your hands.
Prepare the meat by cutting it into small slices or neat cutlets and season with salt and pepper.
Roll out the covers to fit the pies, wet the edges, and place them on the pies.
Press the edges together with your thumb and finger, trim with scissors, and pinch to seal.
Bake
Bake the pies for 1.5 hours.
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 + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + meattop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,777 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Flour + meattop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,529 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 dough's structure so the pastry holds its shape around the filling.
- Lard
- Adds fat that makes the pastry tender and short, giving a flaky, rich texture.
- Water
- Hydrates the flour with the lard so the dough can be kneaded and shaped.
- Meat (pork or mutton)
- Forms the savory filling that the pastry encloses.
The step that matters
Mixing the boiling water and lard into the flour. Pouring boiling liquid fat into the flour partly cooks the starch, which helps the dough stay stiff and hold its shape when shaped by hand. Adding it gradually and mixing well keeps the dough evenly hydrated instead of lumpy or sticky.
“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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