Skip to main content
Dessert

Good Scottish Shortbread

A buttery shortbread cake with candied orange or citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Good Scottish Shortbread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Mix one pound of flour with two ounces of sifted sugar and one ounce of sliced candied orange-rind or citron.

  2. Make these into a paste with eight to nine ounces of good butter, warmed until liquid.

Shape

  1. Press the paste together with the hands and mould it onto tins into large cakes nearly an inch thick, then pinch the edges.

Bake

  1. Bake the shortbread in a moderate oven for twenty minutes, or longer if not crisp, but do not allow it to become deeply coloured.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

606Calories
13 gProtein
13 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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
Provides the structure that holds the shortbread together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that makes the texture short and tender.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the shortbread brown gently while baking.
Candied orange rind or citron (in the method)
Adds aroma and a fruity flavour to the shortbread.

The step that matters

Bake gently and keep it pale. Sugar and butter brown quickly in the oven, and deep colour turns the flavour bitter. Baking until just crisp keeps the shortbread sweet and buttery.

“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.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes