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 ↓
Feuilletage, or Fine French Puff Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Chill the butter over ice before use.
Break small bits of butter lightly into the flour.
Make the dough
Add the salt to the center of the flour.
Pour enough water to dissolve the salt.
Add a little more water to the egg yolks.
Gradually moisten the flour with the egg mixture.
Knead until you have a very smooth paste.
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
- Forms separate pockets of fat that separate layers and puff into flakes when baked.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dough together as it is worked.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help bind the dough into a smooth paste.
The step that matters
Kneading to a smooth paste. Kneading develops gluten, the protein network that gives dough its elasticity. Working the dough too much makes it tough and can cause the butter to warm and smear, which weakens the layers needed for puffing.
“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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