Name: Strawberry Short-cake
Ingredients: 1 quart sifted flour; 1 teaspoon salt; 4 ounces butter; Sugar to taste; 2 teaspoons baking powder; Milk as needed; 2 quart boxes strawberries; Rich cream for serving

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 Short-cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Stem the strawberries, slightly mash them, and sweeten to taste. Set aside.
Rub the butter into the flour, which has been sifted with the baking powder and salt.
Add enough milk to make a soft dough that can be easily rolled out. Mix quickly and lightly.
Flour the board and rolling pin. Roll out the dough to ½ inch thick.
Divide the dough into 2 parts. Place one layer in a large baking pan.
Dust the top with flour and add the second layer of dough on top.

Bake and serve

Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 20 minutes.
Once baked, carefully separate the two layers of cake with a knife.
Place one layer on a platter, spread thickly with butter, then add a layer of sweetened strawberries.
Top with the second layer of cake, the remaining strawberries, and sugar.
Stand in the open mouth of the oven until ready to serve with rich cream.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 structure of the dough once moistened and baked.
Butter: Rubbed into the flour to add tenderness and richness to the cake layers.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking so the layers rise and stay light.
Strawberries: Provide moisture, sweetness and fruity flavor between and over the cake layers.
Milk: Hydrates the flour so the mixture forms a soft, rollable dough.