Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Fruit Shortcake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the dough
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, mix and sift the baking powder with the flour and salt.
Chop the lard and butter into the flour mixture until crumbly.
In another bowl, combine the eggs and sweet cream.
Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, handling as little as possible.
Assemble and bake
Roll out the dough into two sheets, one ½ inch thick for the top crust and the other thinner for the bottom.
Grease a baking pan and lay the thinner crust in it.
Spread the berries over the crust and sprinkle with sugar.
Cover with the thicker crust and bake for 20-25 minutes until browned.
Serve hot for breakfast with butter and powdered sugar.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the crust as its proteins bind with the liquid when mixed.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the oven so the crust rises and turns light and tender.
- Lard
- Cut into the flour to create short, flaky pieces that keep the crust tender.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavor, helping the crust brown and stay tender.
- Eggs
- Add richness and help bind the dough together.
- Sweet cream
- Adds moisture and fat, making the dough soft and rich.
The step that matters
Handling the dough. Mixing the egg and cream into the flour with too much handling develops gluten, which makes the crust tough instead of tender. Mix only until 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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