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
Make the rich paste
Mix a little butter with flour and wet it with water to make a stiff paste.
Roll it out and lay slices of butter all over it.
Turn in the ends and roll it thin.
Repeat this process twice, touching it as little as possible.
Make the less rich paste
For a less rich paste, rub together 2 pounds of flour and ½ cup of butter.
Mix into a paste with a little water and 2 beaten eggs, then roll and fold it four times.
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 + 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
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Solid fat layers separate the dough sheets and create a flaky texture as water turns to steam.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the layered dough together while it is rolled and folded.
- Eggs
- Bind the paste and add richness and structure to the less rich version.
The step that matters
Repeat rolling with minimal handling. Butter must stay cold and in distinct slices. If the warm hands or repeated handling melt it into the dough, the layers blend away and the pastry loses its flakiness.
“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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