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 ↓
Puff Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
Divide the butter into 5 or 6 equal parts.
Cut 2 parts into thin slices and mix with the sifted flour.
Add a little water at once and stir with a knife until stiff.
Laminate
Turn the mixture onto a board and roll gently with a rolling pin, dusting with flour.
Roll it up and repeat until all butter is incorporated.
Roll it up again, and it is ready for use.
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
- Forms the thin layers that separate into flaky sheets when the dough is rolled and folded.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dough together around the butter layers.
- Water
- Hydrates the flour so the mixture becomes a cohesive, stiff dough.
The step that matters
Rolling and folding the butter in. The butter must stay in distinct pieces within the dough. If it softens or melts into the flour, the layers merge and the pastry loses its flakiness, so keep the dough cool and roll gently.
“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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