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 Short-cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°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 dough
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and sugar.
Cut in the butter until crumbly, then add milk to form a dough.
Divide the dough in half and roll each half to fit a biscuit or pie tin.
Bake and assemble
Spread soft butter on the bottom layer and place the top layer on it.
Repeat with the second half of the dough for another short-cake.
Bake in the oven until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.
Remove from the oven and separate the layers where the butter was spread.
Butter each crust generously.
Place the bottom crust on a serving plate and cover with prepared strawberries.
Pour any remaining strawberry juice around the cake.
Serve with a pitcher of sweet cream.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 biscuit crumb as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the shortcake rises and becomes light.
- Butter
- Cut into the dough for tenderness and flakiness, and spread between layers for richness.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour to form a dough and adds moisture and browning.
- Strawberries
- Provide fruity sweetness and juice that soaks into the shortcake.
The step that matters
Separating the layers after baking. The butter spread between layers keeps them from fusing in the oven, so they must be separated while still warm and before the crust cools and sets; otherwise the layers may tear.
“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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