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 ↓
Puff Paste
Ingredients
Directions
If using salt butter, break it into small pieces and soak in cold water to remove excess salt. Work it until dry and firm, then roll it and chill.
For fresh butter, simply mold it without soaking.
Weigh 1 lb of butter and 1 lb of sifted flour.
Rub 2 oz of butter into the flour.
Make a well in the center, add 1 teaspoon of salt, and pour in enough cold water to form a paste similar in consistency to the butter.
Adjust the water amount based on the season to prevent the butter from becoming too soft during rolling.
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
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