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 ↓
The Art of Making Good Pie Crust
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the dough
Keep the dough cold while preparing.
Avoid rolling it too much or adding too much flour.
Incorporate ingredients evenly for even rising.
Choose the fat and bake
For common use, use half or more lard for a flaky crust.
For delicate pastries, use only butter.
Use 1 pound of butter to 1 pound of flour for puff pastry.
Keep the dough cool until baking in a quick oven at 400°F (200°C).
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).
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
- Fat that stays in solid pieces and creates layers and tenderness as it melts in the oven.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the crust once mixed with liquid and gluten develops.
- Lard
- Fat that keeps layers separate, giving a flakier texture than butter alone.
The step that matters
Keep the dough cold and avoid overworking it. Cold fat stays in distinct pieces that melt and separate the layers during baking. Too much rolling or extra flour develops gluten and makes the crust 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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