Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Short Cake
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.
Make the dough
Combine the flour in a bowl.
Add the sour milk to the bowl.
Dissolve the baking soda in 1 teaspoon of boiling water.
Mix in the salt.
Mix in the softened butter.
Beat the mixture thoroughly before adding all the flour.
Stir until combined.
Shape and bake
Place the dough on a floured surface.
Form the dough into a smooth mass.
Roll out the dough to about ⅓ inch thick.
Cut the dough into small cakes.
Prick each cake with a fork.
Bake the cakes at 400°F (200°C) until golden.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
What each ingredient does
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the dough once mixed and rolled.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the cakes rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that lightens the cakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and enriches flavor.
The step that matters
Beat the mixture thoroughly before adding all the flour. Thorough mixing of the wet ingredients with the baking soda and fat distributes the leavening evenly, so the cakes rise uniformly. Adding flour too early or unevenly can leave pockets of unreacted soda and uneven texture.
“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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