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
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the dough
Rub the baking powder into the flour until smooth.
Add the salt and mix with enough water to form a proper consistency.
Work the dough until smooth, then cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Laminate the dough
Break the butter into pieces, place in a thin cloth, and squeeze out the milk.
Roll out the dough slightly, place the butter in the center, and fold the dough over it.
Roll out the dough 5 or 6 times, folding it in thirds each time, keeping the open ends at the top and bottom.
Bake
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C).
To test the oven heat, bake a small piece of the pastry.
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).
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 main structure of the dough once mixed with water.
- Butter
- Folded into layers that create separation and flakiness during baking.
- Baking powder
- Helps the pastry rise and lighten as it bakes.
The step that matters
Rolling and folding the dough with the butter. The butter must stay cold and in separate layers within the dough. Rolling and folding several times creates these thin layers, which turn into flaky sheets when the water in the butter turns to steam in the oven.
“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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