Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Cream Biscuits
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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Sift the flour and cream of tartar together three times.
Make and shape the dough
In a bowl, mix sour cream and baking soda.
Combine the sour cream mixture with sweet milk and add to the flour mixture.
Stir until a dough forms, then shape into biscuits.
Place in tin cups about the size of ordinary teacups.
Bake
Bake until golden brown.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 biscuits as the dough sets in the oven.
- Cream of tartar
- Reacts with baking soda to produce gas that helps the biscuits rise.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and fat for a tender crumb, and its acidity activates the baking soda.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour cream and cream of tartar to produce gas for rising.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture to bind the dough and softens its texture.
The step that matters
Stir until a dough forms. Overmixing develops gluten and makes biscuits tough, while stirring just until combined keeps them tender. The leavening gas from the acid-soda reaction is also released quickly, so the dough should be shaped and baked without long delay.
“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.
More cream biscuits recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.