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Dessert

Apple Short Cakes

A baked cake made with flour, lard, butter, egg yolk, sugar, water or milk, topped with stewed apples.

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 ↓

Apple Short Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix flour, salt, and baking powder.

  3. Cut in lard and butter until crumbly.

  4. Add egg yolk, sugar, and cold water (or milk) to form a dough.

  5. Roll out the dough to a thickness of ½ inch.

Bake and assemble

  1. Bake in the oven until golden brown.

  2. Remove from the oven.

  3. Split the cake with a sharp knife dipped in boiling water.

  4. Spread stewed apples on one half.

  5. Add extra spice if desired.

  6. Replace the top.

  7. Sift sugar over.

Serve

  1. Serve hot or cold.

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. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Flour
Forms the main structure of the dough as its proteins and starch set during baking.
Lard
Shortens the dough, keeping it crumbly and tender by coating flour particles.
Butter
Adds fat for flavour and tenderness, and helps the dough brown as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, lifting the dough so it rises and becomes lighter.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and fat, helping bind the dough and give it a tender texture.
Stewed apples
Provides moisture and fruity sweetness that fills the split shortcake.

The step that matters

Split the cake while still warm-hot. Cutting with a knife dipped in boiling water gives clean, smooth faces, since a hot blade slides through fat and starch without tearing the crumb.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, egg, sugar, milk):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, egg, sugar, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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