Name: English Shortbread
Ingredients: 1 lb flour; ½ lb sugar; ¼ lb butter; 2 eggs

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 ↓

English Shortbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

1 lb flour
½ lb sugar
¼ lb butter
2 eggs

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

Thoroughly mix and rub the flour, sugar, and butter together until the mixture is a nice mellow color and easy to work.
Weigh off the size required and shape into square or round pieces.

Shape and bake

Dock the tops and notch the sides.
Place on clean, dry baking sheets and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).
Decorate the tops with designs of neatly-cut lemon peel and caraway comfits.

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.

Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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: Forms the structure of the shortbread so it holds its shape when baked.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the shortbread brown lightly in the oven.
Butter: Provides fat that makes the shortbread tender and rich in texture.
Eggs: Add moisture and help bind the dough together.

The step that matters

Mixing the flour, sugar, and butter. The dough should be thoroughly mixed until smooth and evenly combined. Under-mixing leaves pockets of butter and uneven texture, while the fat must stay cool enough to keep the shortbread tender rather than greasy.

“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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English Shortbread