Name: Short Cakes
Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour; 1 cup shortening; Crushed strawberries, peaches, or any fruit; Whipped cream

Why it works: Flour and peach work together. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 787 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Short Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup shortening
Crushed strawberries, peaches, or any fruit
Whipped cream

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Prepare baking powder biscuits using twice the amount of shortening.
Roll out the dough larger than usual and cut into desired shapes.
Open each piece, fill with crushed fruit, and cover the top.
Serve with whipped cream.

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 + peachtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together787 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,481 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Peach + creamtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together721 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).