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 ↓
Butter Crust for Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
In a bowl, combine the flour and salt.
Cut the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse crumbs.
Gradually add water, mixing until a dough forms.
Roll out the dough as needed for your pudding.
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
What each ingredient does
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure.
- Unsalted butter
- Cut into the flour to create fat pockets that make the crust tender and flaky.
The step that matters
Adding water gradually. Adding water a little at a time and mixing only until a dough forms keeps the dough from becoming tough. Too much water or overworking develops excess gluten, which makes the crust dense and hard.
“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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