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Dessert

Blanche Kammerer

A shortcake made with pastry flour, butter, sugar, milk, and egg, layered with sweetened berries and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Blanche Kammerer

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift salt, baking powder, and flour.

  2. Cream butter, sugar, and egg until light.

  3. Add milk and flour alternately, stirring lightly.

  4. Bake in quick oven.

Assemble and serve

  1. Cut the cake in half.

  2. Cover one half with sweetened berries.

  3. Place the other half on top.

  4. Cover with more berries and whipped cream over the berries.

By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Pastry flour
Provides the structure that holds the tender crumb together.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lifts the batter so the shortcake rises.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness by coating flour and limiting gluten development.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown in the oven.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and makes the batter moist and cohesive.
Egg (in the method)
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the crumb.

The step that matters

Stir the milk and flour in lightly. Overmixing once the flour is wet develops gluten, which makes the shortcake tough and dense instead of tender. Stop stirring as soon as the flour is just combined.

“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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