Why it works: Milk and butter 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 Short Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make and bake the dough
In a bowl, mix flour, milk, lard or butter, baking soda, and cream of tartar until combined.
Divide the dough into two layers and bake until golden.
Assemble and serve
Once cooled, place one layer on a serving dish and top with strawberries.
Beat the egg whites until frothy and spread over the top layer.
Smooth the egg whites and cut into squares, garnishing each with a strawberry on the corners and one in the center.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the dough once combined with the liquid and leavening.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the cream of tartar to produce gas that makes the dough rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acts with the baking soda as an acid, helping the dough rise and stay tender.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and hydrates the flour to form the dough.
- Lard or butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and contributes to a crumbly texture.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to foam, they form a light, airy topping that holds its shape.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until frothy. Egg whites must be beaten to a stable foam, since the proteins unfold and trap air. Under-beaten whites stay runny and will not hold a smooth topping.
“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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