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 ↓
Rich Puff Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Weigh equal amounts of butter and flour.
Mix a little butter with the flour and add just enough water to form a stiff paste.
Laminate
Roll out the paste and layer the remaining butter in slices on top.
Fold the ends of the paste over the butter and roll it thin.
Repeat this process twice, handling the paste as little as possible.
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
- Unsalted butter
- Forms the separate layers that puff up into flakes as the pastry bakes.
- All-purpose flour
- Builds the stiff paste that holds the butter layers in place during rolling.
The step that matters
Handling the paste as little as possible. Warmth and overworking soften the butter and develop gluten, which can merge the layers and stop the pastry from puffing cleanly.
“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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