Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Short Crust
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Sift the flour and baking powder onto a pastry board.
Rub in the lard and margarine until well combined.
Make the dough
Make a well in the center and pour in the milk and water.
Mix everything together until a dough forms.
Roll and use
Roll out the dough on a floured board.
Use the crust for tarts or pies, or make small tartlets with jam.
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 + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Millennium flour
- Provides the structure that holds the pastry together.
- Borwick's baking powder
- Releases gas in the dough to give a light rise.
- Lard
- Coats flour particles to keep the crust short and tender.
- Margarine
- Adds fat for a crumbly, tender texture.
- Milk
- Adds moisture so the dough binds and rolls out.
The step that matters
Mixing the dough. Mix only until the dough just holds together. Overworking develops gluten in the flour, which makes the finished crust tough rather than short and tender.
“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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