Why it works: Butter and flour 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
Sift flour onto a clean surface.
In a bowl, combine egg yolk, lemon juice, and cold water; beat with a fork.
Make a well in the flour, pour in the liquid mixture gradually, and knead until firm.
Flour a rolling pin and roll the dough thinly.
Prepare the butter by pressing it in a towel to remove moisture, then spread it on one half of the dough.
Fold the other half over the butter and press the edges tightly.
Roll out the dough again, ensuring the butter stays inside.
Fold the dough into three layers and roll it out again, alternating the direction each time.
Repeat the folding and rolling process seven times, allowing the dough to cool between each rolling.
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 + flourtop 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 + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 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).
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
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
- Coconutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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