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Improved Self-Raising Flour

A flour blend containing cream of tartar, soda, semolina, saffron, and ordinary flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Semolina and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 325 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Improved Self-Raising Flour

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix cream of tartar, carbonate of soda, ground semolina, and dried ground saffron in a dry sieve.

  2. Combine the mixture with 20 lbs of ordinary flour thoroughly.

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. Semolina + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together325 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Semolina + saffrontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Saffron + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together447 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cream + semolinatop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together83 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Cream + saffrontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together243 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cream of tartar
Provides acid that reacts with the soda to release carbon dioxide for rising.
Carbonate of soda
Releases carbon dioxide when it meets the acid, lightening the mixture.
Ordinary flour
Provides the main structure, as gluten forms once the flour is hydrated.

The step that matters

Combine the mixture with the flour thoroughly. The acid and soda must be spread evenly through the flour. Uneven distribution leaves pockets where gas forms too strongly or not at all, giving uneven rising.

Swap the saffron

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, semolina, flour):

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Turmericfits about as well
  4. Saffronthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, semolina, flour. 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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