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.
Prepare the dough
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and sugar.
Cut in the butter until crumbly.
Divide the dough in half and roll each half to fit a biscuit or pie tin.
Spread soft butter on the bottom crust and place the top crust on it.
Repeat with the second half of the dough.
Bake and serve
Bake until golden brown, then remove from the oven.
Separate the layers with a knife where the butter was spread.
Place the bottom crusts on plates and cover with prepared strawberries.
Pour any remaining juice around the cake and serve with 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 structure of the shortcake as it bakes.
- Butter
- Cut into the flour to create a crumbly, tender texture and separate the layers.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the shortcake rises and stays light.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown.
- Strawberries
- Provide fruit flavor, sweetness and juice that soaks into the shortcake.
- Sweet cream
- Adds richness and a cool, creamy contrast to the warm shortcake.
The step that matters
Separate the layers with a knife where the butter was spread. Cutting while the shortcake is still hot can crush its crumb. Letting it cool slightly keeps the layers intact and light, and the butter between them keeps them from fusing as they bake.
“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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