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 ↓
Very Light Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Mix the flour and water together to form a dough.
Layer the butter
Roll out the dough and place bits of butter on top.
Beat the egg white and brush it over the dough before folding.
Repeat rolling out and adding butter, brushing with egg white each time until all egg white is used.
This will make the paste rise and become flaky.
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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Butter + eggtop 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the dough's structure that holds the thin layers together.
- Unsalted butter
- Separates the dough into layers and creates flakiness as it melts.
- Egg white
- Brushed between layers to add sheen and help the layers hold together.
The step that matters
Placing the butter in layers. The butter must stay in distinct pieces between rolled sheets of dough. As the layers bake, the butter's water turns to steam and lifts the sheets apart, producing flakiness. If the butter blends into the dough, the layers are lost.
“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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