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Dessert

Sir Aw Berry Shortcake

A shortcake made with strawberries, sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, butter, milk, and topped with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Sir Aw Berry 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 strawberries

  1. Slice the strawberries and mix with sugar. Let sit for 30 minutes.

Make the shortcake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.

  3. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

  4. Stir in milk until just combined.

  5. Pour batter into a greased baking dish.

  6. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve warm topped with strawberries and whipped cream.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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 shortcake as it bakes and sets.
Butter
Cut into the flour to create tender layers and a crumbly texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the shortcake rises and stays light.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and adds moisture for a soft, cohesive dough.
Fresh strawberries
Provide fresh fruit flavor and juice that soaks into the warm shortcake.
Sugar
Sweetens the strawberries and draws out their juices as they sit.

The step that matters

Stir in milk until just combined. Overmixing once flour is hydrated develops gluten, making the shortcake tough instead of tender. Stop as soon as no dry flour remains.

“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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