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Dessert

Strawberry Shortcake

A shortcake made with strawberries, powdered sugar, flour, butter, milk, baking powder, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Sift the flour with the baking powder and powdered sugar.

  2. Rub in the butter until well combined.

  3. Gradually add the milk, mixing quickly but thoroughly.

  4. Stir in the beaten egg.

  5. Spread the dough into two buttered pie tins, as it is too soft to roll out.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until light brown.

  2. Split the shortcake carefully and butter well.

  3. Fill each half with strawberries and sugar.

  4. Dredge powdered sugar over the top.

  5. Wrap in a cloth to keep warm and soft.

  6. Serve with cream and sugar or cover 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. 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. Sugar + flourtop 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the shortcake together after baking.
Butter
Rubbed into the flour to add tenderness and richness to the crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven so the shortcake rises and turns light.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds structure and richness to the crumb.
Milk
Hydrates the flour to form a soft dough and adds moisture to the crumb.
Strawberries
Add fresh fruit flavour and juice that soaks into the split shortcake.

The step that matters

Gradually add the milk, mixing quickly but thoroughly.. Overworking wheat flour develops gluten, which makes shortcake tough instead of tender. Mix only until the dough just comes together, stopping as soon as it is evenly moistened.

“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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