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 ↓
Paste, Short Crust
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the dough
In a bowl, rub the butter and lard into the flour until crumbly.
Add the baking powder, salt, and egg yolk.
Gradually mix in enough water to form a stiff paste.
Roll out the dough to your desired thickness and use immediately.
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 structure of the pastry as its proteins hydrate into gluten.
- Butter
- Its fat coats the flour and keeps the pastry short and tender.
- Lard
- Adds fat that shortens the gluten strands, giving a crumbly texture.
- Egg yolk
- Adds fat and emulsifiers that enrich the dough and help bind it.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that lightens the pastry as it bakes.
The step that matters
Adding the water. Too much water develops gluten and makes the pastry tough, while too little leaves it crumbly and hard to roll. Add it gradually until the dough just holds together as a stiff paste.
“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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