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Dessert

Strawberry Shortcake

A baked cake made with flour, butter, lard, sugar, salt, egg yolks, milk, topped with crushed sweetened strawberries and served with heavy cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Strawberry Shortcake

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. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Sift baking powder into the flour.

  3. In a bowl, mix flour, butter, lard, sugar, and salt.

  4. Beat the egg yolks with the milk and add to the mixture.

  5. Mix until combined, then roll out thin.

Bake and assemble

  1. Bake in double layers for about 15-20 minutes.

  2. Once baked, split the layers and spread with crushed, sweetened strawberries.

  3. Stack the layers and serve with heavy 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 the main body of the dough.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven so the shortcake rises and becomes light.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the crumb tender and rich in flavor.
Lard
Adds fat that keeps the crumb tender and short.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the dough while adding fat.
Milk
Provides moisture that hydrates the flour and forms the dough.

The step that matters

Rolling the dough thin and baking in double layers. Over-mixing develops gluten and makes the shortcake tough, so mix only until combined. Rolling thin and baking the layers evenly ensures the shortcake bakes through without drying out or becoming dense.

“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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