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 ↓
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 the dough
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
Cut in butter or lard until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Add milk gradually, mixing until a dough forms.
Roll out the dough to ½ inch thick and place it in a round pie tin.
Spread butter or lard on the dough and sprinkle lightly with flour.
Cover with another layer of dough and bake until golden brown.
Assemble and serve
Once baked, remove the top crust and spread a thick layer of strawberries and sugar on the bottom crust after buttering it well.
Replace the top crust, butter it, and add more strawberries on top.
Pour any remaining strawberry juice over the cake.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Butter + sugartop 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the dough once hydrated with milk.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the oven, helping the shortcake rise and turn light.
- Butter or lard
- Cut into the flour to create layers and a tender, flaky texture.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour to bind the dough and adds moisture.
- Fresh strawberries
- Provide fruity sweetness, acidity, and juice that soaks into the crust.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to the dough and draws juice out of the strawberries.
The step that matters
Cutting in the butter or lard. Keeping the fat in distinct pieces, rather than fully blending it into the flour, creates layers and a tender, flaky crumb. Overworking the dough develops gluten and makes the shortcake tough.
“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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