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 ↓
Pie-crust
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Place the flour on a clean surface or in a bowl and make a hollow in the center.
Add the shredded butter or suet and salt into the hollow.
Mix until combined, then stir in the egg yolks.
Gradually add iced water until a smooth dough forms.
Roll and rest
Dredge flour on the surface and roll the dough out to ½ inch thick.
Fold the dough in thirds, roll it out again, and fold it once more.
Cover with a cloth and refrigerate until ready to use.
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
- Provides the structure that holds the dough together and sets when baked.
- Butter or beef suet
- Fat coats flour particles, keeping the crust tender and flaky by limiting gluten formation.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and fat, helping the dough bind and bake to a golden color.
- Iced water
- Hydrates the flour so the dough forms, while staying cold to keep the fat solid.
The step that matters
Gradually add iced water. Too much water develops gluten and makes the crust tough, while too little leaves the dough crumbly. Adding it slowly lets you stop once the dough just comes together. Keeping the water icy keeps the fat in small solid pieces, which creates flakiness during baking.
“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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