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Dessert

Strawberry Shortcake

A baked cake made with flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, shortening, milk, butter, topped with strawberries and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Strawberry Shortcake

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

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

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

  3. Cut in the shortening and mix lightly with milk or water until the dough resembles biscuit dough.

  4. Divide the dough into two equal portions and roll each into a sheet about ½ inch thick.

Bake and serve

  1. Place one sheet in a shallow pan, spreading the bottom lightly with butter.

  2. Bake for about 15 minutes until golden.

  3. Separate the two layers and spread each with butter and well-sweetened strawberries.

  4. Serve with whipped cream.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Forms the dough's structure, setting the crumb as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, lifting the shortcake so it rises and becomes tender.
Shortening
Coats flour particles when cut in, creating a tender, flaky texture.
Milk
Hydrates the flour to form the dough and adds richness and browning.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown as it bakes.

The step that matters

Mix lightly with milk or water. Overmixing once liquid is added develops gluten, which makes the shortcake tough rather than tender. Stop as soon as the dough resembles biscuit dough.

“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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