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Dessert

Scotch Wafers

A sweet biscuit made from flour, butter, sugar, eggs, cinnamon, and milk, baked until fawn colored.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Scotch Wafers

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Rub the flour and butter together.

  2. Mix in the sugar, eggs, and cinnamon.

  3. Add the milk and work to a smooth dough.

  4. Let the dough rest for half an hour.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll into a sheet ¼ inch thick.

  2. Cut into small round cakes or desired shapes.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until fawn colored.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 worked with butter and liquid.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the wafers tender and crisp rather than tough.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the wafers brown during baking.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add richness and structure.
Milk
Adds moisture so the flour and fat come together into a smooth dough.

The step that matters

Work the dough to a smooth consistency. Adding the milk and working the dough until smooth evenly distributes the fat and liquid, which keeps the wafers consistent in texture. Under-worked dough can be crumbly, while overworking can make the wafers tough.

“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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