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 ↓
Soda Biscuits
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Melt half a pound of butter in a pint of warm milk, adding a teaspoonful of soda.
Stir in half a pound of sugar.
Sift two pounds of flour into the mixture.
Make a hole in the middle of the flour.
Pour in the milk, etc., and mix it with the flour into a dough.
Put the dough on a pasteboard and knead it long and hard until it becomes very light.
Shape and bake
Roll the dough out into a sheet half an inch thick.
Cut the dough into little round cakes with the top of a wine glass or a tin cutter of that size.
Prick the tops of the cakes.
Lay the cakes on tins sprinkled with flour or in shallow iron pans.
Bake the cakes until a light brown color in a quick oven; they will be done in a few minutes.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| 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.
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.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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 dough once mixed and kneaded.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderises the biscuits and enriches their flavour.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface take on a light brown colour.
- Milk
- Supplies moisture that binds the flour into a workable dough.
The step that matters
Baking in a quick oven. The cakes are small and thin, so they can turn from light brown to too dark within minutes. Checking them early keeps the crust golden rather than scorched.
“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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