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
two piesIngredients
Directions
Make the dough
Rub the shortening into the flour until well combined.
Mix in the baking powder and salt.
Add cold water gradually to form a stiff dough, mixing as little as possible.
Roll and bake
Roll out the dough lightly for two pies.
Use leftover dough by rolling it thin, cutting into squares, and baking.
Top baked squares with a spoonful of raspberry jelly before serving.
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 of the dough when combined with liquid.
- Shortening
- Coats flour particles to keep the crust tender and flaky.
- Cold water
- Binds the flour and fat into a dough that holds together.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas to lighten the crust slightly as it bakes.
The step that matters
Mixing the water into the dough. Once water is added, gluten develops with handling, so mixing as little as possible keeps the crust tender rather than 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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