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Dessert

Strawberry Shortcake

A baked cake made with graham and white flour, sweet cream, baking soda, cream of tartar, topped with strawberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Strawberry Shortcake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the strawberries

  1. Wash strawberries in a colander if needed, and sprinkle with sugar if not perfectly ripe. Let sit for an hour.

Make and bake the cake

  1. Mix the flours, baking soda, and cream of tartar together.

  2. Roll the dough to ½ inch thick, prick with a fork, and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 40 minutes.

Assemble and serve

  1. Once baked, cool the cake edgewise until comfortable to handle.

  2. Split the cake in half carefully, placing each half crust down on a plate.

  3. Top with prepared strawberries, then place one half on top of the other.

  4. Let it stand for 30 minutes before serving.

  5. Serve remaining strawberries on the side.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Graham flour
Gives the cake a coarse, nutty texture and a hearty structure.
White flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness, tenderizing the dough.
Baking soda
Reacts with the cream of tartar to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Acts with the baking soda to leaven the dough and adds slight tang.
Strawberries
Provide the fruity flavor, moisture, and sweetness that complete the dish.

The step that matters

Splitting the cake while still warm. Cutting the cake before it has cooled enough can crumble or tear the crumb, so cooling it until comfortable to handle lets it split cleanly.

“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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