Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 124,287 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Pate Brisee
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Sift the flour onto a clean surface.
Make a well in the center and add the salt and butter.
Gradually add water to form a firm dough.
Knead the dough until well mixed without overworking the butter.
Shape into a mass and add more water if too dry.
Rest
Cover with a wet cloth and let it rest for 30 minutes.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely 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 combined with water.
- Butter
- Adds fat that keeps the pastry tender and flaky when kept in pieces.
- Water
- Hydrates the flour so the dough holds together.
The step that matters
Knead the dough until well mixed without overworking the butter. Warm, overworked butter melts into the flour and makes the pastry greasy and tough instead of flaky. Mix just until 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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