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Dessert

Black Raspberry Shortcake

A shortcake made with flour, butter, milk, egg, salt, baking powder, sugar, and black raspberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Black Raspberry Shortcake

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Sift the salt and baking powder with the flour.

  3. Chop in the butter, then add the milk and beaten egg.

  4. Roll the dough into a sheet ½ inch thick and spread it in a greased baking tin.

Assemble and bake

  1. Cover the dough with the black raspberries and sprinkle with sugar.

  2. Lay another sheet of dough on top, slightly thinner than the bottom crust.

  3. Bake until golden, cut into squares, and serve hot with butter and sugar.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the dough as it bakes.
Butter
Chopped in for tenderness and richness in the crumb.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds structure and richness.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough so the shortcake rises.
Black raspberries
Provide tart fruit flavor and moisture between the layers.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top turn golden as it bakes.

The step that matters

Roll the dough to ½ inch thick. Dough that is too thin bakes dry and brittle, while dough that is too thick may stay raw in the center. Even thickness helps the shortcake bake through and rise evenly.

“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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