Name: Excellent Short Crust
Ingredients: 2 ounces white sugar, pounded and sifted; 1 pound all-purpose flour, well dried; 3 ounces unsalted butter, softened; 2 large egg yolks; ½ cup cream; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Excellent Short Crust

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

2 ounces white sugar, pounded and sifted
1 pound all-purpose flour, well dried
3 ounces unsalted butter, softened
2 large egg yolks
½ cup cream
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

In a bowl, combine the sugar and flour.
Rub in the butter until it is fully incorporated.
In another bowl, beat the egg yolks and mix with the cream.
Combine the egg mixture with the flour mixture to form a smooth paste.

Line and bake

Roll the dough thin and line your tart pans.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 15 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 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

All-purpose flour: Forms the main structure of the dough once combined with liquid.
Unsalted butter: Rubbed into the flour to add tenderness and a short, crumbly texture.
Egg yolks: Add richness and help bind the dough into a smooth paste.
Cream: Adds moisture and fat, making the dough softer and more pliable.
White sugar: Adds sweetness and contributes to gentle browning in the baked crust.

The step that matters

Rub in the butter until fully incorporated. If the butter is not evenly rubbed into the flour, pockets of fat melt unevenly and the crust can turn out tough or greasy rather than short and crumbly. Working the butter in until it resembles fine crumbs keeps the texture tender.

“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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Excellent Short Crust