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 Shortcake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the dough
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Sift together the flour and baking powder, then rub in the butter.
Mix in the sweet milk using a spoon until combined; the dough will be soft.
Pat the dough onto baking sheets to about 1 inch thick.
Bake and assemble
Bake until the cakes rise.
Increase the oven temperature.
Remove from the oven and split the cakes while hot.
Spread butter on the halves and top with sweetened fruit.
Place one half on top of the other, with the top half reversed.
Serve immediately.
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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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).
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Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,475 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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 cakes as its starch sets during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the dough, making the cakes rise and turn light.
- Butter
- Rubbed into the flour to add tenderness and richness, and spread on the split halves.
- Sweet milk
- Hydrates the flour to form the soft dough and adds moisture.
- Strawberries
- Add sweetness, juiciness and fresh flavour that soaks into the split cakes.
The step that matters
Splitting the cakes while hot. Warm cakes are soft and tear cleanly along their layers, while cooled cakes become firm and crumble. Splitting them hot keeps the halves intact for layering.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, 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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