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 ↓
Breakfast and Tea Cakes
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).
In a bowl, mix the flour with baking soda and cream of tartar or baking powder. Add coarse sea salt to taste.
Bake
Handle the dough as little as possible.
Quickly place the dough in the hot oven.
Bake for about 8 minutes 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.
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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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the main structure of the cakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas that lifts the dough.
- Cream of tartar or baking powder
- Provides the acid or leavening that makes the cakes rise.
The step that matters
Handle the dough as little as possible. Mixing or kneading develops gluten in the flour, which makes the cakes tough. Minimal handling keeps them tender and light.
“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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