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 ↓
Brioche Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Sift the flour and lay it on a clean surface, dividing it into four equal parts.
Wash the yeast by pouring water over it, stirring, and letting it settle. Discard the water and keep a large tablespoon of the sediment.
Mix the yeast sediment with hot water to form a paste, ensuring it is not too liquid.
In a small pan, place the yeast paste, make slits in it, cover, and let it rise near a warm place for 15 minutes.
Make a large hole in the remaining flour, add salt and sugar, and a little water to dissolve the salt.
Break the butter into small pieces and place it in the center of the flour hole.
Crack the eggs, checking for freshness, and add them to the mixture. Combine everything well.
Knead the dough by spreading it lengthwise on the table edge and pressing it with your palms.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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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).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
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