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 ↓
Strawberry Short-cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Make the shortcake
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and sugar.
Cut in the butter until crumbly.
Add enough milk to form a soft dough.
Divide the dough in half and roll each piece to fit a biscuit tin or pie tin.
Spread soft butter on the bottom layer and place the top layer on it.
Repeat with the second half of the dough.
Bake until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.
Assemble and serve
Remove from the oven and separate the layers where the butter was spread.
Butter each crust generously and place the bottom layer on a plate.
Mix strawberries with sugar and cover the bottom layer with them.
Place the top crust on the strawberries and pour any remaining juice around the cake.
Serve with a pitcher of sweet cream.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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 main structure of the crumbly, biscuit-like crust.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the oven so the crust rises and stays light.
- Butter
- Cut into the flour and spread between layers, giving the crust tenderness and flaky separation.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the crust and draws juice from the strawberries into a syrup.
- Strawberries
- Add fruit flavor, moisture and gentle acidity that balance the sweet crust.
The step that matters
Cut in the butter until crumbly. Stop once the butter is in small, crumbly pieces. Overworking the dough melts the butter and develops gluten, which makes the crust tough instead of tender and flaky.
“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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