Why it works: Butter and flour 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 ↓
Peuilletage, or Fine French Puff Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
Chill the butter over ice until firm.
Break small pieces of butter into the flour.
Place the salt in the center of the flour and dissolve it with a little water.
Mix and knead
Add more water to the egg yolks and gradually moisten the flour mixture.
Knead until you have a very smooth paste.
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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Butter + flourtop 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).
Butter and flour 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
- Butter
- Stays in solid pieces that melt in the oven, creating the layers and flakiness of the pastry.
- Flour
- Provides the structure of the dough, as its proteins form gluten when moistened and kneaded.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and fat, and help bind the dough together.
The step that matters
Moisten the flour gradually. Adding water a little at a time lets the flour absorb it evenly. Too much water at once, or overworking the dough, develops gluten too strongly and makes the pastry tough.
“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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