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 ↓
Short Obust Fob Apple Turnovers
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the dough
Peel, quarter, and core the apples, then slice them thinly.
In a bowl, mix the flour and baking powder. Rub the butter or dripping into the flour with your hands.
Add enough cold water to form a stiff paste.
Flour a board and turn the paste onto it. Flour a rolling pin and roll the paste to about ¼ inch thick.
Cut the paste into rounds, each about the size of a small plate.
Shape and bake
Place an apple slice on one half of each round and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of sugar.
Wet the edges of the paste, fold it over the apple, and press the edges together firmly.
Grease a baking sheet and place the turnovers on it.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes.
Serve the turnovers warm on a hot dish.
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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Butter + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Forms the main structure of the paste once mixed with water.
- Clarified butter or dripping
- Coats flour particles to make the pastry short and crumbly rather than tough.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the oven so the pastry rises and lightens.
- Apples
- Provide the filling, softening and becoming juicy as they bake.
- Moist sugar
- Sweetens the apple filling and helps it caramelise slightly at the edges.
The step that matters
Pressing the edges together firmly. If the wet edges are not sealed well, juices from the apple can leak out during baking and the turnover may open up, leaving the filling dry and the pastry soggy.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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