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
Ingredients
Directions
Wash your hands and prepare a clean surface.
Make a hollow in the center of the flour, add salt and water.
Mix gradually, adding more water to collect all flour.
Work the paste lightly until it no longer sticks.
Remove water from the butter using a clean cloth.
Place the butter in the center of the paste and fold the sides over to enclose it.
Chill the paste for 5 minutes in a cold place or refrigerator.
Roll the paste to a length of 3 feet, then fold one end over one-third and the other end over.
Let it rest for 10 minutes, then give it 2 turns at right angles to the first rolling.
Rest for another 10 minutes and give it 2 more turns, totaling 5 or 6 turns.
Gather the paste into a lump and roll to about ¼ inch thickness.
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).
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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