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
Prepare the dough
Place flour in a circle on a clean surface.
In the center, add the egg, salt, and butter; mix lightly.
Gradually add water until the mixture binds into a paste, but do not overwork it.
Roll out the paste on the surface, not too thin.
Laminate
Spread the butter to the size of the paste, then place it on top.
Fold the edges of the paste over the butter to enclose it.
Roll out the paste until you can see the butter through it.
Fold the ends over each other and roll once or twice with a rolling pin.
Let it rest for three minutes, then repeat the folding and rolling process for a total of six turns.
Shape
Roll out again and cut into desired shapes for petits fours.
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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Egg + buttertop 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
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure.
- Butter
- Forms layers between dough sheets that separate and create flakiness when baked.
- Egg
- Adds richness and helps bind the dough together.
The step that matters
Do not overwork the paste. Mixing water in too vigorously develops excess gluten, making the dough tough and elastic rather than tender and flaky, and it can make the butter layers smear into the dough.
“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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