Name: Pastry for Two Custard Pies
Ingredients: 1 ¼ cups sifted flour; ¾ teaspoon baking powder; ¼ teaspoon salt; ⅓ cup shortening (lard, butter, or a mixture); Cold water to moisten

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 ↓

Pastry for Two Custard Pies

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

1 ¼ cups sifted flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup shortening (lard, butter, or a mixture)
Cold water to moisten

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder.
Cut in the shortening with a knife.
Add cold water a little at a time, stirring with a knife until a paste forms. Be careful not to add too much water.

Shape and bake

Roll out the dough and line the pie tins.
Prick the crust with a fork to allow air to escape and prevent blisters.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until nearly done but not brown.
Remove and fill immediately with custard mixture.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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 structure of the crust when mixed with water.
Shortening: Creates tenderness and flakiness by coating flour particles and keeping pieces separate.
Baking powder: Produces gas that lifts the crust slightly, giving it a lighter texture.
Cold water: Moistens the flour so it binds into a dough without developing excess gluten.

The step that matters

Adding the water. Too much water makes the dough sticky and develops gluten, producing a tough crust. Adding it gradually and stopping once a paste forms keeps the crust tender.

“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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Pastry for Two Custard Pies