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 ↓
Sweet Strawberry Shortcake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the cake
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.
Add the well-beaten eggs and mix well.
Sift together the flour and baking powder, then stir into the mixture.
Pour the batter into deep tin plates and bake until golden.
Assemble and top
While the cake is baking, mix the strawberries with 1 cup of sugar.
Once the cakes are baked, spread the strawberry mixture between the layers.
For the top layer, make a meringue by beating the egg white and adding powdered sugar, then spread it over the strawberries.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as the cake sets in the oven.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake crumb as its starches set during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and turn light and tender.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and macerates the strawberries into a juicy filling.
- Strawberries
- Provide moisture, fruity flavour and acidity to the filling between the layers.
- Egg white
- Whipped with powdered sugar to form a meringue topping that sets into a light, glossy layer.
The step that matters
Making the meringue topping. Egg white must be beaten until it holds stiff peaks and sugar is added gradually so the foam stays stable; under-whipped or greasy whites will not hold their shape.
“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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