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
Make the dough
Mix the flour and enough ice water to form a soft dough.
Roll out the dough into a sheet.
Laminate
Place all the butter in the center of the dough.
Fold the edges of the dough over the butter.
Roll out and fold the dough six times.
The puff paste is now 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 separate layers that steam and lift the dough, giving puff pastry its flakiness.
- Flour
- Provides the structure of the dough that holds the layers of butter in place.
- Ice water
- Hydrates the flour to form a dough while keeping it cold so the butter stays solid.
The step that matters
Keeping the butter and dough cold while rolling and folding. If the butter softens and blends into the dough, the layers merge and the pastry will not puff. Cold butter stays in distinct sheets that turn to steam in the oven and lift the layers.
“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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