Name: Buttermilk Short Cakes
Ingredients: 1 pound all-purpose flour; ¼ pound unsalted butter; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2 cups buttermilk (or thick milk); 1 large egg

Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Buttermilk Short Cakes

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

Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the dough

In a large bowl, rub the butter into the flour until well combined.
Dissolve the baking soda in the buttermilk.
Beat the egg and stir it into the buttermilk mixture.
Pour the buttermilk mixture into the flour and butter mixture.
If the dough is too wet, add more buttermilk until it forms a moderately stiff dough.

Shape and bake

Roll out the dough into cakes and place them on a baking sheet.
Bake until golden brown.

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.

Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + buttermilktop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,674 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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: Provides the main structure that holds the shortcakes together as they bake.
Unsalted butter: Rubbed into the flour to create tenderness and a flaky, layered texture.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce gas that helps the shortcakes rise.
Buttermilk: Adds moisture and acidity, which activates the baking soda and tenderizes the crumb.
Egg: Binds the dough and adds richness and structure to the baked shortcakes.

The step that matters

Adding the buttermilk to the dough. Too much liquid makes the dough sticky and tough, while too little leaves it dry and crumbly. Add buttermilk gradually until the dough is moderately stiff, since overworking develops gluten and toughens the shortcakes.

“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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Buttermilk Short Cakes