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 ↓
Veal and Ham Pie
Ingredients
Directions
In a bowl, combine flour, butter, and lard.
Chop the butter and lard into the flour, then add salt.
Make a well in the center and add a tablespoon of water.
Mix with fingers, adding more water until a stiff paste forms.
Flour your hands and the board to prevent sticking.
Roll out the paste with a floured rolling pin to fit the pie dish.
Boil water in a saucepan, add eggs, and cook for 10 minutes.
Cut veal and bacon into small pieces.
Peel the boiled eggs and chop them.
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).
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Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, egg, flour, butter):
- Capersfits better
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
- Tarragonfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, flour, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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