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 for Raised Pies
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the dough
In a large bowl, combine the flour and butter with a little coarse sea salt.
Gradually add water, mixing until the paste is as stiff as possible.
Shape the dough
Once well mixed, give the dough two or three turns and roll it out to your desired pie shape.
Optionally, melt the butter in warm water before mixing to reduce the amount of water needed.
If the paste gets too cold while working, warm it slightly.
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
- Flour
- Forms the main structure, as its proteins hydrate and link into gluten that holds the dough together.
- Butter
- Coats flour particles and stays solid in layers, which keeps the crust tender and flaky.
The step that matters
Gradually add water, mixing until the paste is as stiff as possible.. Adding water slowly lets you stop once the flour is just hydrated. Too much water or extra mixing develops gluten, which makes the crust tough and shrinking.
“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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