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, No. 1
Ingredients
Directions
Sift the flour and salt into a bowl.
Strain the lemon juice, add a little cold water, and stir it lightly into the flour.
Mix in enough cold water to form a dough similar in consistency to the butter.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until air bubbles appear.
Roll out the dough lightly.
Flour a cloth, place the butter in it, and squeeze out as much moisture as possible.
Press the butter to about half the size of the dough and place it in the center of the paste.
Dust the butter lightly with flour, fold the edges of the paste over the butter, and wrap it well.
Refrigerate for an hour, or place it on ice if available.
After chilling, roll the dough out evenly lengthwise, then turn it over and roll the other side.
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).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 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
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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