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 ↓
Paste for Covering Meat Pies
Ingredients
Directions
Make the paste
In a bowl, rub the butter into the flour until well combined.
Add a little coarse sea salt if the butter is fresh.
Mix in enough cold water to form a thick paste.
Knead the paste quickly on a floured surface.
Roll out the paste flat with a rolling pin.
Shape the crust
Invert the dish onto the rolled paste and cut out the shape needed for the cover.
Roll out the trimmings and cut them into strips.
Wet the edges of the dish and place the strips around the edges as a foundation.
Fill the dish with meat and lay the cover on top, pressing the edges to seal.
Use any leftover paste to cut out decorative shapes and place them on the cover.
Glaze and finish
After baking, glaze the crust with a mixture of beaten egg white and water or sugar and water using a brush.
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).
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
- Coats flour particles to add richness and a tender, flaky texture.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the crust its structure.
- Cold water
- Hydrates the flour so the dough binds into a workable paste.
The step that matters
Knead the paste quickly on a floured surface. Overworking flour dough develops too much gluten, making the crust tough rather than tender. Brief kneading keeps it workable without toughening it.
“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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