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 ↓
Jackson Jumbles
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the dough
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a large bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the sugar, sour milk, baking soda, and butter until well combined. Add flavoring to taste.
Gradually knead in enough flour to form a soft dough that doesn't stick to the board.
Shape and bake
Roll the dough out slightly thinner than biscuit dough.
Cut into desired shapes and bake in the preheated oven until golden.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add richness and structure as they set in the oven.
- Sour milk
- Adds moisture and tang, and reacts with baking soda to help the biscuits rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in sour milk to produce gas, helping the biscuits rise.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor and helps the biscuits brown.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the biscuits and contributes to browning as they bake.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dough together once kneaded in.
The step that matters
Knead in the flour gradually. Adding flour slowly lets you stop once the dough is soft and no longer sticky. Too much flour at once makes the dough dry and tough, since extra flour develops gluten and firms the 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.
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