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 ↓
Pie Crust for Four Ten-inch Pies
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Combine the flour with the butter or butter and lard until well mixed.
Moisten the mixture with a small amount of water.
Spread the dough into a sheet about 1 inch thick and 10 to 12 inches wide.
Spread ½ cup of butter on the surface and dust with flour.
Roll the dough into a log about 4 inches in diameter.
Portion and roll out
Cut the log into 8 pieces for tops and bottoms.
Turn each piece on its side and roll out to fit the pie plate.
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
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the dough once mixed with fat and water.
- Butter
- Coats flour particles and adds fat, giving the crust tenderness and flavor.
- Lard
- Adds fat that makes the crust flaky and tender when used in place of some butter.
The step that matters
Moisten the mixture with a small amount of water. Too little water leaves the dough crumbly and hard to roll, while too much makes it tough because gluten develops. Add water gradually and stop once the dough holds together.
“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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