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
Mix ¼ pint of water with lime juice and sprinkle over the paste until half mixed.
Thoroughly mix until the paste no longer sticks to the surface and form it into a round ball.
Cut the suet into dice and flatten the paste to about 2 inches thick, spreading the suet evenly on top.
Fold the sides of the paste to the center to enclose the suet, forming a square.
Roll the paste out to a length of 1 yard, then fold one-third towards the center and the other third over it to give the paste one turn.
Let the paste rest for 10 minutes in the refrigerator, then give it two more turns, resting for 10 minutes in between.
Repeat for a total of five rolls, then gather the paste into a lump and roll it according to your needs.
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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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).
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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