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 ↓
A Very Fine Paste for Cheesecakes and Tartlets
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the dough
Dry the flour.
Mix in the powdered sugar.
Beat the butter to a frothy cream.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter.
Incorporate the egg yolks and egg whites to form a stiff paste.
Chill the paste on ice or marble for a short time.
Bake and serve
Bake for 15 minutes at 400°F (200°C).
Brush with beaten egg white, cover with sifted sugar, and return to the oven for a few minutes to harden.
Serve cold.
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 + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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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).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Provides the structure that holds the paste and baked crust together.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and beating it creates a light, tender texture.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help bind the paste into a stiff dough.
- Egg whites
- Add structure and, brushed on top, help the sugar coating set and harden.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the crust and dissolves easily into the butter for a smooth dough.
The step that matters
Chilling the paste. Cold paste holds its shape and resists spreading in the oven. Chilling the butter-based dough keeps the fat firm, which helps prevent a greasy, misshapen crust.
“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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