Name: Chestnut Hill Strawberry Cake
Ingredients: 4 cups all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 cups milk; 2 quarts strawberries; Sugar, to taste

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 ↓

Chestnut Hill Strawberry Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder.
Rub in the cold butter until well combined.
Add the milk and mix into a smooth dough that is soft enough to handle.
Divide the dough in half and roll each half to the size of breakfast plates.

Bake and assemble

Place the rolled dough on a greased baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.
Once baked, carefully separate the cake layers without cutting them.
Place half of the strawberries on the bottom layer and sprinkle with sugar.
Top with the other layer, crust side down, and add the remaining strawberries on top, sprinkling with more 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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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 dough and sets the crumb as it bakes.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking so the layers rise and stay light.
Butter: Rubbed into the flour, it adds tenderness and richness to the crust.
Milk: Hydrates the flour so the dough comes together and bakes moist.
Strawberries: Add fruity aroma and juiciness that soaks into the layers.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the strawberries taste brighter.

The step that matters

Separating the hot layers without cutting them. Freshly baked dough is soft and fragile, so it tears easily when hot. Letting it firm slightly before lifting helps the layers stay intact and keeps the fruit from sliding off.

“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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Chestnut Hill Strawberry Cake