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Dessert

Peach Short-cake

A layered peach shortcake made with sliced peaches, sugar, flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, butter, milk, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Peach Short-cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Slice peaches to measure 3 pints and sprinkle with 1 cup sugar. Let sit in a cool place for at least 30 minutes.

  2. In a bowl, mix flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, and sugar, then sift the mixture.

  3. Rub in 4 tablespoons butter until combined.

  4. Add 1½ cups milk and mix quickly to form a smooth dough.

  5. Divide the dough into 6 parts and roll each to the size of a medium pie plate.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter 3 pie plates and place a piece of dough in each. Spread lightly with soft butter.

  2. Add a second piece of dough on top of each and bake in a hot oven (400°F) for 10 minutes.

  3. Once baked, tear the cakes apart and spread with the prepared peaches.

  4. Top with the remaining pieces and heap whipped cream on top. Serve immediately.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Peach + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together781 recipes

    Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).

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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure of the shortcake once baked and set.
Butter
Rubbed into the flour to create a tender, crumbly texture and add richness.
Milk
Hydrates the flour to form a smooth dough and adds moisture to the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with cream of tartar to release gas, helping the cakes rise.
Cream of tartar
Acts with baking soda as a leavening acid, aiding rise and a light texture.
Peaches
Add fruity sweetness and juice that moistens the cake layers.

The step that matters

Working the dough quickly after adding the milk. Once liquid meets flour, gluten begins to form, and overmixing makes the cakes tough. Mixing quickly and briefly keeps the shortcake tender and light.

Swap the peach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, cream, butter, milk):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, cream, butter, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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