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Dessert

A Rich Short Cake Crust

A flaky shortcake crust made with pastry flour, cornstarch, butter, egg white, and milk.

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 ↓

A Rich Short Cake Crust

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

  1. Sift together the pastry flour, cornstarch, salt, sugar, and baking powder.

  2. Cut in the butter with a knife or work it in with your fingertips.

  3. Add the beaten egg white and gradually mix in the milk until a flaky dough forms.

  4. Fold and knead the dough lightly.

Shape and bake

  1. Divide the dough into two portions and shape into rounds or squares.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 15 to 20 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 + 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

Butter
Cut into the dry mix to create flaky layers as it melts during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas to lift the dough so the crust rises and becomes tender.
Pastry flour
Provides the main structure of the crust with low gluten for a tender bite.
Milk
Adds moisture to bind the dough together.
Egg white
Adds structure and helps bind the dough.

The step that matters

Cutting in the butter. If the butter is overworked or melts into the flour, the dough loses the cold fat pockets that create flakiness. Keeping the mixture crumbly until the milk is added gives a tender, flaky texture.

“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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