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Dessert

Apple Short Cakes

A shortbread-like cake made with flour, lard, butter, egg yolk, sugar, water, and 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. In a bowl, mix flour, salt, and baking powder.

  2. Cut in lard and butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

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

  4. Roll out the dough to a thickness of just over ½ inch.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until golden brown.

  2. Remove from the oven immediately to prevent drying.

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

  4. Spread stewed apples on one half and place the other half on top.

  5. Sift sugar over the top and 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the dough once mixed with liquid.
Lard
Cut into the flour to create a tender, crumbly texture.
Butter
Adds flavour and richness while keeping the crumb short and tender.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps bind the dough together.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the shortcake rises and lightens.
Stewed apples
Provide moisture and fruity sweetness filling the shortcake layers.

The step that matters

Removing the shortcake from the oven. Leaving it in the oven after it turns golden lets moisture escape, drying the crumb and making it tough. Removing it immediately keeps it tender.

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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