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 ↓
Pie Crust
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the dough
Sift the flour thoroughly and add a pinch of salt and 2 ounces of butter.
Mix the egg yolk and lemon juice with the cold water.
Stir the flour into a paste with the liquid using a silver fork.
Turn the dough onto a board and roll it out to ½ inch thick.
Spread 3 ounces of butter on the dough, fold it over, and roll it out three times.
Line the patty tins with the dough and place in a cool place until needed.
Roll out the remaining dough, spread the last 3 ounces of butter, and roll it out five times.
Let it rest for 30 minutes.
Fill and bake
Fill the patty tins with mincemeat.
Roll the paste as thin as possible, wet the edges, and cover each pie with three layers of paste.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 20 minutes.
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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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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 structure of the pastry when mixed with liquid and rolled.
- Butter
- Forms flaky layers when spread between rolled sheets of dough, creating a tender, crisp texture.
- Egg yolk
- Adds richness and helps bind the dough, contributing to a tender texture.
- Cold water
- Hydrates the flour to form a dough while keeping the fat firm.
The step that matters
Keeping the butter layers distinct during rolling. Butter must stay cold and separate from the dough. If it softens and blends in, the layers melt together instead of puffing into flakes during baking, so the pastry turns dense rather than flaky. Resting the dough in a cool place helps keep the fat firm.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
- Coconutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, egg. 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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