Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Strawberry Short-cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the dough
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and sugar.
Cut in the butter until crumbly.
Divide the dough in half.
Roll each half to fit a biscuit or pie tin.
Spread soft butter on the bottom crust.
Place the top crust over it.
Repeat with the remaining dough for a second short-cake.
Bake and split
Bake in the oven until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.
Remove from the oven.
Separate the layers where the butter was spread.
Butter each crust generously.
Assemble and serve
Place the bottom on a serving plate.
Mix strawberries with sugar.
Cover the crust with them.
Top with the second crust.
Pour any remaining juice around the cake.
Serve with a pitcher of sweet cream.
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the crust as its proteins set during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the crusts rise and turn light and tender.
- Unsalted butter
- Cut into the flour to create flaky, crumbly layers and a rich texture.
- Strawberries
- Provide fresh fruit flavor and juice that moistens the layers.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the crust and macerates the strawberries into a syrupy juice.
The step that matters
Butter each crust generously before separating. Butter between the baked layers keeps them from fusing and adds richness. Too little leaves the layers stuck together, while the fat helps the crust stay tender and moist.
“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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