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 ↓
English Puff-paste
Ingredients
Directions
In a bowl, combine the flour and 8 ounces of butter. Add a pinch of salt.
Gradually add cold water until the mixture forms a smooth and pliable paste.
Roll the paste out to ¾ inch thick using a rolling pin.
Place 6 ounces of butter in small pieces on the paste and fold it over like a dumpling.
Roll it out again and add another 6 ounces of butter, repeating the rolling process.
Dust flour over the board and paste each time you roll.
Add 6 more ounces of butter and roll the paste thin 3 to 4 times, folding the ends into the middle.
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
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