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Dessert

Sir a Jvberry Short Cake

A short cake made with flour, baking powder, butter, salt, milk, and strawberries, served warm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Sir a Jvberry Short Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a large bowl, mix the baking powder with the flour. Add the butter and salt, then pour in the milk. Mix thoroughly and quickly until combined.

  3. Roll the dough to 1 inch thick.

Bake and assemble

  1. Bake for 20 minutes.

  2. Wash the strawberries. Sweeten the strawberries to taste.

  3. Once the cake is done, divide it into three layers. Butter each layer. Spread the strawberries between the layers.

  4. Serve warm.

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. 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 main structure of the dough as it sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough so the cake rises and becomes light.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives richness.
Milk
Hydrates the flour to form the dough and adds moisture and browning.
Strawberries
Provide fruity moisture and sweetness between the cake layers.

The step that matters

Mix thoroughly and quickly until combined. Overworking wheat flour dough develops gluten, which makes the cake tough and dense. Mixing just until the ingredients come together keeps the crumb tender and light.

“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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