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Dessert

Maple Shortcake

A shortcake with a maple syrup and butter filling, topped with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Maple Shortcake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the shortcake

  1. Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder.

  2. Rub in the butter or lard and mix with enough milk to make a soft dough.

  3. Knead very lightly and divide into two portions.

  4. Bake in layer cake pans at 350°F (175°C), spreading the mixture evenly.

  5. Brush the baked cakes with melted butter.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, boil the maple syrup and butter until it spins a thread.

  2. Slowly pour the syrup mixture onto the stiffly beaten egg whites while beating continuously.

  3. When smooth, fold in the whipped cream and vanilla.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 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 shortcake dough.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the filling its light, airy texture.
Butter or lard
Rubbed into the flour to tenderise the dough and add richness.
Baking powder
Releases gas that makes the shortcake rise and turn light.
Maple syrup
Cooked to a thread stage to sweeten and flavour the filling.
Whipped cream
Folded in to add moisture and a soft, creamy body to the filling.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot syrup onto the egg whites. The syrup must be poured slowly while beating constantly. Pouring too fast or without beating can deflate the whites or partly scramble them, so the filling loses its airy texture.

“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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