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 ↓
Raised Crust for Meat Pies, or Fowls, Fyc.
Ingredients
Directions
Boil water with lard and dripping or butter until hot.
Mix in enough flour to form a stiff, smooth paste.
Knead and beat the paste with a rolling pin until smooth.
Soak a lump of the paste in a cloth or under a pan until near cold.
Roll the paste to the desired thickness and cut out the top and bottom of the pie.
Cut a long piece for the sides and attach it to the bottom using egg to seal.
Fill the pie with your desired filling and cover with the top crust, pinching the edges together.
If using a tin form, butter it before adding the paste and bake after filling.
Remove the tin carefully when done and return to the oven for an additional 15 minutes if needed.
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
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