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 ↓
Tert Good Light Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the flour and lard in a bowl.
Add cold water to form a smooth paste.
Press the buttermilk from the butter and shape it into a ball using a clean cloth.
Roll out the paste and place the butter ball in the center.
Fold the paste over the butter like a dumpling and roll it out to less than 1 inch thick.
Fold the ends into the middle and dust with flour.
Roll the paste thin again and let it rest in a cool place for 3-4 minutes.
Repeat the rolling and folding process two more times.
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
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