Skip to main content
Main

Scotch Scones

Scotch Scones are quick baked triangular pastries made from flour, butter, milk, yeast, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 33 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 Scones

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Thoroughly mix, while dry, one quart of sifted flour, loosely measured, with two heaping teaspoonfuls of baking powder.

  2. Rub into the mixture a tablespoonful of cold butter and a teaspoonful of salt, ensuring the butter is well worked in.

  3. Add sweet milk enough to make a very soft paste.

  4. Roll out the paste about a quarter of an inch thick, using plenty of flour on the paste board and rolling pin.

  5. Cut the rolled dough into triangular pieces, each side about four inches long.

Bake and serve

  1. Flour the sides and bottom of a biscuit tin, and place the pieces on it.

  2. Bake immediately in a quick oven for twenty to thirty minutes.

  3. When half done, brush over with sweet milk.

  4. (Optional) Some cooks prefer to bake them on a floured griddle, cut them a round shape the size of a saucer, then scarred across to form four quarters.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

948Calories
27 gProtein
39 gFat
120 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 9 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Cakenot in our table0

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

By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Forms the structure of the scone as the paste sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the heat, lifting the scones so they rise and stay light.
Butter
Rubbed into the flour, it adds tenderness and richness to the crumb.
Sweet milk
Binds the dough into a soft paste and adds moisture and browning.

The step that matters

Bake immediately in a quick oven. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it is moistened, so the dough should go into a hot oven without delay to rise well and keep a light texture.

“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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes