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 ↓
Puff Paste
Ingredients
Directions
In a bowl, mix flour and salt (if using).
Add water and work the mixture into a dough using your hands.
Knead the dough until smooth, then divide it in two.
Roll out one piece of dough and set it aside.
Roll out the second piece of dough to the same size.
Roll out the butter to the same size and place it between the two pieces of dough.
Press the edges together to seal the butter inside.
Lightly flour the top and bottom, then roll out the dough as thin as possible.
Fold the dough into quarters, then roll it out again.
Repeat the folding and rolling process two more 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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
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