Name: Raised Pie-Crust
Ingredients: 1 pound all-purpose flour; 6 ounces iced butter or clarified beef suet; 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt; Water (enough to mix a very stiff dough); Egg white (for sealing and brushing)

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 ↓

Raised Pie-Crust

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

1 pound all-purpose flour
6 ounces iced butter or clarified beef suet
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
Water (enough to mix a very stiff dough)
Egg white (for sealing and brushing)

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the crust

Butter a pie tin and cut an oval piece of dough slightly larger than the bottom.
Cut a strip 3.5 inches wide to go around the inside of the tin.
Attach the bottom piece to the wall with egg white, pinching them together.

Fill and bake

Fill the pie with prepared meat and cover with an oval cap, sealing with egg white.
Brush the pie with egg white and bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

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.

Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour: Forms the gluten network that gives the crust its structure.
Iced butter or clarified beef suet: Fat that stays solid in the dough, creating flaky layers and tenderness as it melts in the oven.
Egg white: Acts as a glue to seal the pieces together and gives the brushed crust a glossy browned finish.