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 ↓
Pork-pie Crust
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the water in a saucepan.
Stir in the clarified suet, fresh butter, and salt until melted.
Pour the hot mixture into a bowl with the dried flour.
Work the mixture to a stiff paste, adding a little water if necessary.
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).
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
What each ingredient does
- Well dried flour
- Forms the structure of the paste, which firms as it cools.
- Clarified suet
- Adds fat that keeps the crust short and tender.
- Fresh butter
- Adds richness and flavour alongside the suet.
The step that matters
Working the paste to a stiff consistency. Adding water sparingly matters because excess liquid makes the dough slack and hard to shape. Working it while still warm keeps the fat soft and the paste pliable.
“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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