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 ↓
Plain Pie Crust
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, combine flour and salt.
Work the shortening into the flour until well combined.
Add ice cold water gradually, mixing until the dough holds together.
Roll and bake
Roll out the dough quickly, avoiding excessive handling.
Bake the pie crust as soon as it is prepared.
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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the crust together once mixed with liquid.
- Shortening
- Coats flour particles to keep the crust tender and flaky by limiting gluten formation.
- Ice cold water
- Binds the flour and fat into dough while staying cold so the fat remains in pieces.
The step that matters
Keep the dough cold and handle it lightly. Cold fat stays in small pieces that melt during baking and leave flaky layers. Warm fat blends into the flour, and overworked dough develops tough gluten, making the crust dense.
“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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