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Dessert

Strawberry Short-cake

A layered cake of flour, shortening, sugar, baking powder, salt, milk, and strawberries, topped with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Strawberry 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 bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

  3. Cut in shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

  4. Add milk gradually, mixing until a dough forms.

Layer and bake

  1. Roll out the dough thinly and place a layer in a baking pan.

  2. Spread with melted butter and dust with flour.

  3. Add another layer of dough, repeating the butter and flour steps.

  4. Continue layering until all dough is used.

  5. Bake until golden brown.

Assemble and serve

  1. Once baked, spread sliced strawberries between the layers.

  2. Turn the top layer crust-side down and spread with more strawberries.

  3. Pour whipped cream or charlotte russe over the top.

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

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

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 as it bakes.
Shortening
Coats flour particles to create a tender, flaky texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, helping it rise and turn light.
Milk
Hydrates the flour so the dough holds together and bakes through.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown.
Fresh strawberries
Add juicy moisture, bright flavor and a touch of acidity.

The step that matters

Cutting in the shortening. Stop when the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Overworking the fat and flour develops gluten and makes the shortcake tough rather than tender and flaky.

“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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