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 ↓
French Savoury Pie-Crust
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
In a bowl, combine the flour and salt.
Rub in the cold butter or suet until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Gradually add the water mixed with egg yolks to form a dough.
Fold and rest
Roll out the dough and give it two or three turns, then fold it.
Wrap the dough in a cloth and refrigerate for one hour before using.
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).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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).
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
- Butter or suet
- Cold fat rubbed into the flour creates flaky layers as it melts during baking.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help bind the dough together.
The step that matters
Keeping the butter or suet cold. Cold fat stays in distinct pieces while the flour is mixed, so it melts during baking and leaves flaky layers. If the fat warms and blends into the flour, the crust becomes tough and dense.
“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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