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Dessert

Blackberry Shortcake

A baked pastry with blackberry filling and meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Blackberry Shortcake

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.

Make the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder.

  3. With floured fingers, work in the butter until crumbly.

  4. Mix in the milk and water to form a soft dough.

  5. Spread the dough in two buttered pans, smoothing with a knife.

  6. Bake until golden brown.

Assemble and finish

  1. Butter the under crust and layer with blackberries mixed with granulated sugar.

  2. Sprinkle the top with powdered sugar.

  3. If desired, mash some berries between the cakes.

  4. Beat the egg whites with 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar until stiff.

  5. Spread the meringue on top and return to the oven to brown slightly.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 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

Pastry flour
Provides the structure that holds the soft dough together after baking.
Butter
Worked into the flour to create a crumbly, tender texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, helping the shortcake rise and become light.
Blackberries
Supply juicy tartness and flavor that contrasts with the sweet, tender crust.
Egg whites
Beaten into a stiff meringue that sets and browns on top of the cake.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be beaten until they hold firm peaks; under-beaten whites stay runny and will not form a stable meringue that sets and browns in the oven.

“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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