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Dessert

Shrewsbury Cakes

A shortbread cookie made with flour, sugar, butter, and water, rolled thin and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Shrewsbury Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

  1. Soften the butter slightly and press out the water.

  2. Mix the flour and sugar together.

  3. Work in the butter with a wooden spoon until well incorporated.

  4. Add the water and mix until it becomes a smooth, stiff paste.

Shape the cakes

  1. Roll the paste very thin and cut the cakes into rounds or desired shapes.

  2. If the paste does not roll smoothly, cover it and refrigerate overnight.

  3. Roll the paste thin again.

  4. Lay the cakes on baking sheets.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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
Provides the structure that holds the rich, crumbly cake together.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender, short texture and rich flavor.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown lightly as they bake.
Water
Binds the flour and butter into a workable paste.

The step that matters

Working the paste to the right stiffness. Butter that is too warm or too much water makes the paste sticky and hard to roll thin. Chilling it overnight firms the butter so the dough rolls smoothly and the cakes keep their shape in the oven.

“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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