Name: Strawberry Short Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup margarine; 1 quart all-purpose flour; 3 teaspoons baking powder; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 egg; milk (as needed); sugar (for strawberries and topping); cream (for serving)

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

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Rub the margarine into the flour, then add baking powder and salt.
Beat the egg with a little milk and mix into a stiff dough.

Bake and serve

Roll out the dough and bake on flat tins until golden.
Once baked, split the cakes and layer well-sugared strawberries between.
Sift sugar over the top and serve with 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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

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

Margarine: Rubbed into the flour to add fat, giving the cakes a tender, crumbly texture.
All-purpose flour: Forms the structure of the dough once mixed with liquid and egg.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the oven so the cakes rise and become light.
Egg: Binds the dough and adds richness and structure to the cakes.
Sugar: Sweetens the strawberries and draws out their juices, and adds sweetness to the topping.

The step that matters

Mixing the dough. Rubbing the margarine into the flour before adding liquid keeps fat coating the flour particles, which limits gluten development and keeps the cakes tender rather than tough.

“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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Strawberry Short Cake