Name: Alethen Brown
Ingredients: one quart of flour; one tablespoonful of but- ter; two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar; one teaspoonful of soda

Why it works: Flour and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,481 recipes. Both carry acetaldehyde, which smells pungent, ethereal. The science ↓

Alethen Brown

Ingredients

one quart of flour
one tablespoonful of but- ter
two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar
one teaspoonful of soda

Directions

Combine flour, salt, butter, cream of tartar, and soda.
Mix with sweet milk until stiff as can be stirred with a spoon.
Bake in quick oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

555Calories

13 gProtein

7 gFat

108 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 3 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Keokuk (Iowa). Westminster Presbyterian church. 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. See the original page.

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 + creamtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,481 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour: Provides the structure that holds the bread together once baked.
Cream of tartar: Acts as an acid that reacts with soda to produce gas and lift the dough.
Soda: Reacts with the acid in the cream of tartar to release carbon dioxide for rising.
Butter (in the method): Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and contributes richness.

“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.