Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Strawberry Short-cake
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 thick milk, lard, baking soda, and a little salt.
Gradually add flour until the dough is soft.
Knead the dough, then roll it out and cut into rounds.
Bake and serve
Bake in jelly tins until golden.
Layer strawberries between the baked cakes and sprinkle with white sugar.
Serve hot with sweet cream.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + flourtop 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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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Thick milk
- Provides moisture and liquid so the flour forms a soft dough.
- Lard
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and keeps the cakes short.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidity in the dough to produce gas that makes the cakes rise.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the cakes as it binds with the liquid and fat.
- Strawberries
- Add fruity sweetness and acidity that contrast with the rich cakes.
- Sweet cream
- Adds richness and cooling creaminess to the warm cakes.
The step that matters
Adding the flour gradually. Flour forms gluten as it is mixed and worked, so adding it slowly and stopping once the dough is soft keeps the cakes tender rather than 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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