Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Banana Shortcake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the cake
Cream together the butter and 1 cup of powdered sugar.
Add the egg yolks and mix well.
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Sift the baking powder into the flour.
Add the flour and egg whites alternately to the butter mixture.
Bake in jelly pans at 350°F (175°C) until golden.
Make the banana cream
While the cake is baking, whip the heavy cream with ½ cup of powdered sugar until stiff.
Slice the bananas.
Fold the sliced bananas into the whipped cream.
Assemble and serve
Spread the banana cream mixture over one layer of the cake.
Place the second layer on top.
Serve hot.
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Butter + bananatop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,536 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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
- Creams with sugar to create a tender, rich crumb structure.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks to lighten the batter and help the cake rise.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and fat, helping the batter bind and brown.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the layers rise.
- Heavy cream
- Whipped to stiff peaks to form a light, rich filling.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Under-beaten whites won't hold air, so the cake will be dense; over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy and fold in poorly. Stop when peaks stand upright and glossy.
Swap the banana
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, flour, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Bananathe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, flour, cream. 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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