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Dessert

Strawberry Shortcake

A baked soda biscuit cake layered with buttered dough and sweetened strawberries, finished with beaten egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Strawberry 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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Make a soda biscuit dough with the flour.

  3. Divide the dough and roll out two layers to fit a jelly cake pan.

  4. Place one layer in the pan, spread a little butter on top, and add the second layer.

Bake and fill

  1. Bake until golden brown.

  2. While the cake bakes, prepare the strawberries by mixing them with sugar.

  3. Once the cake is done, remove the top layer.

  4. Place the bottom layer on a plate, butter it generously, and spread half of the strawberries on top.

  5. Invert the top layer onto the strawberries, butter it, and add the remaining strawberries.

  6. For filling, beat the egg white and sugar together for 5 minutes, then spread it over the strawberries.

  7. Serve hot.

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.

  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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the biscuit layers as its proteins and starch set when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the layers and helps them brown.
Strawberries
Provide moisture, sweetness and acidity that flavour the layers.
Sugar
Sweetens the strawberries and the egg white filling.
Egg white
Whipped with sugar, it forms a light, airy topping that sets when spread.

The step that matters

Beat the egg white and sugar for the filling. Egg white only becomes stable and airy when beaten long enough with sugar; under-beaten whites stay runny and will not hold their shape on the strawberries.

“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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