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 ↓
Feuilletage. — Puff, or Vol-au-Vent Paste.
Ingredients
Directions
Knead the flour with salt and enough cold water until the paste is firm and thick.
Cover the paste and let it rise for 2 hours.
Roll the paste out very thin.
Warm the butter over low heat without melting it completely.
Whip the butter lightly with a bunch of feathers to make it froth.
Spread a layer of the frothed butter on the paste.
Using the feather-brush, fold the paste, sprinkle with flour, and roll it out again.
Butter the paste again in the same way, sprinkling more flour.
Repeat this process for 5 or 6 times until the paste is finished.
Roll the paste out very thin for final 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.
-
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
More puff pastry recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.