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Dessert

Huckleberry Short-cake

A layered shortcake made with flour, baking powder, salt, butter, eggs, milk, huckleberries, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Huckleberry Short-cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a steady oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Sift baking powder and salt into the flour.

  2. Chop in cottolene and butter.

  3. Beat eggs until light and mix with sweet milk.

  4. Make a well in the flour, pour in the milk and egg mixture, and mix with a wooden spoon.

  5. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and roll into two sheets, each about ⅓ inch thick.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a greased biscuit pan with one sheet of dough.

  2. Cover with huckleberries and sprinkle with granulated sugar.

  3. Fit the second sheet of dough on top and bake in a steady oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

Serve

  1. Cut into squares and serve warm, split with butter and 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.

  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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 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
Forms the structure of the dough that holds the shortcake together.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough so the shortcake rises and turns light.
Cottolene or other fat
Coats flour particles to tenderize the crumb and add a short texture.
Butter
Adds fat for flavor and tenderness in the dough.
Eggs
Add richness and help bind the dough while adding moisture.
Huckleberries
Provide the fruit flavor and juicy filling layered inside the shortcake.

The step that matters

Rolling the dough sheets to an even thickness. Even sheets bake at the same rate, so the layers cook through without the thin parts drying out or the thick parts staying raw in the centre.

“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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