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, No. 2
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
Cut the butter into small pieces.
Mix the butter lightly with the flour.
Add cold water until a soft dough forms, handling it as little as possible.
Roll out the dough to a large sheet.
Dust the dough with flour to prevent sticking.
Fold and chill
Give the dough six folds.
Roll the dough out again.
Fold the dough five more times.
Refrigerate the dough to firm up 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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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
- Forms the layers that puff as the pastry bakes, through steam released from its water.
- All-purpose flour
- Gives the dough structure so it can be rolled and folded without tearing.
- Cold water
- Binds the flour and butter into a dough that can be rolled out.
The step that matters
Mix the butter lightly with the flour. If the butter is worked in too much or softens, it blends into the flour instead of staying in separate pieces, and the layers that make the pastry rise are lost.
“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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