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 ↓
Short Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
Dissolve the butter in the milk.
Combine the butter and milk mixture with the flour to form a paste.
Roll out the paste to about ¼ inch thick.
Cut into large round cakes.
Fry and serve
Fry the cakes in a frying pan until golden brown.
Serve hot with butter.
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 + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 carries flavour through the dough.
- Milk
- Moistens the flour and helps bind the dough into a paste.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the shortcakes together as they fry.
The step that matters
Frying until golden brown. Frying over steady heat browns the surface through the Maillard reaction while the interior cooks. Too little heat leaves the cakes pale and doughy, and too much burns the outside before the centre is cooked.
“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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