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Dessert

Strawberry Short-cake

A layered cake of soda-biscuit crust, butter, sliced strawberries, and sugar, baked and served hot.

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 ↓

Strawberry Short-cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the crust

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Make a soda-biscuit crust with the flour.

  3. Divide the crust into two equal parts.

  4. Roll each part into a round shape, about ½ inch thick.

  5. Prick the dough well.

  6. Bake the dough in the hot oven until golden.

Assemble and serve

  1. Split the cakes in half.

  2. Place one half on a platter, crust side down.

  3. Spread butter on the cake.

  4. Layer the cake with sliced strawberries and sugar.

  5. Add the second half of the cake.

  6. Spread butter on the second half.

  7. Layer the second half with sliced strawberries and sugar.

  8. Repeat layering if desired.

  9. Place the final half on top, crust side up.

  10. Return the assembled cake to the oven for 5 to 10 minutes.

  11. Serve hot.

  12. For a sweeter taste, crush the strawberries with sugar before layering.

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. Butter + sugartop 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the soda-biscuit crust that holds the cake layers.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the layers, softening the crust.
Strawberries
Provide juicy moisture and fresh, tart flavor between the cake layers.
Sugar
Sweetens the strawberries and draws out their juices.

The step that matters

Bake the dough until golden. Baking until golden browns the surface and dries the crust enough to stay firm under the juicy strawberries instead of turning soggy.

“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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