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 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the dough
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and butter until crumbly.
Add sweet milk and mix until a dough forms.
Divide the dough in half and roll out each half.
Bake and assemble
Bake in 2 round tins for about 25-30 minutes or until golden.
Once baked, split the cakes in half.
Generously butter the bottom layer and cover with sliced, sugared peaches.
Butter the top layer and place it over the peaches.
Serve hot with sugar and cream, if available.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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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 + peachtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together781 recipes
Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the cakes as its starches set during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, so the cakes rise and turn light.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness and helps the crumbly texture of the dough.
- Sweet milk
- Hydrates the flour to form the dough and adds moisture to the cakes.
- Peaches
- Provide juicy fruit and sweetness that contrast with the rich, tender cake.
The step that matters
Mixing the butter into the flour until crumbly. Keeping the butter in small cold-looking pieces and not overworking the dough keeps the cakes tender and flaky; overmixing develops gluten and makes them tough.
Swap the peach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, milk, sugar, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Peachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, sugar, cream. 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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