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Dessert

Scotch Shortcake

A shortcake made with butter, lard, brown sugar, and pastry flour, baked at 300°F for 30 minutes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Scotch Shortcake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, work together the butter, lard, and brown sugar until well combined.

  2. Sift in the pastry flour gradually, kneading thoroughly as you add it.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough out to about ¾ inch thick and cut into cakes.

  2. Prick the cakes with a fork, ensuring the fork goes through to the bottom.

  3. Use a cake turner to place the cakes in a lined baking pan.

  4. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 30 minutes.

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and flour 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

Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, and helps the dough hold together as it bakes.
Lard
Shortens the dough, producing a crumbly, tender texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and contributes to the browning of the cakes.
Pastry flour
Provides the structure of the cakes, with low protein for a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Sift in the pastry flour gradually, kneading thoroughly as you add it.. Adding flour gradually and kneading it in fully keeps the fat evenly distributed, so the dough binds smoothly and bakes with an even, short texture rather than streaks of dry flour or greasy patches.

“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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