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 ↓
Very Good Light Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the flour and lard to form a smooth paste with cold water.
Press the buttermilk from the butter and form it into a ball using a clean cloth.
Roll out the paste, place the ball of butter in the center, and close it like an apple dumpling.
Roll it lightly until it's less than 1 inch thick.
Fold the ends into the middle, dust flour over the board and rolling pin, and roll the paste thin again.
Set it aside in a cool place for 3-4 minutes.
Give it two more turns, rolling it out twice more and folding it each time in thirds.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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