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 ↓
To Make Paste for a Goose Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the paste
Boil the butter and suet in a kettle of water for 2-3 minutes.
Pour the boiling mixture over the flour.
Work it into a stiff paste.
Pull it into lumps to cool.
Raise and bake
Use the paste to raise your pie and bake it in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).
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 + beeftop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,847 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Flour + beeftop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 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
What each ingredient does
- Fine flour
- Forms the main structure of the crust as its starch and proteins set during baking.
- Fresh butter
- Adds fat that shortens the crust, giving it a tender, crumbly bite.
- Rendered beef suet
- Adds solid fat that keeps the crust tender and helps it hold its shape when raised by hand.
The step that matters
Pour the boiling mixture over the flour and work it into a stiff paste. The hot fat and water hydrate and partly gelatinize the flour's starch, making the dough pliable enough to raise by hand. If the mixture cools too much before shaping, the paste becomes stiff and prone to cracking.
“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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