Name: Crackling Bread or Biscuit
Ingredients: 1 quart all-purpose flour; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 2 cups cracklings or scraps of crisp, fresh pork; 1 teaspoon cream of tartar; 1 teaspoon baking soda; milk as needed

Why it works: Pork and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,386 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Crackling Bread or Biscuit

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

1 quart all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
2 cups cracklings or scraps of crisp, fresh pork
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
milk as needed

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the dough

In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, cracklings, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
Gradually mix in enough milk to form a dough.
Shape the dough and place it on a baking sheet.

Bake and serve

Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown.
Serve warm.

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.

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.

Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,386 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pork + creamtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,093 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,481 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

All-purpose flour: Forms the main structure of the bread as the dough sets in the oven.
Cracklings: Add fat and savory pork flavor, giving the bread a rich, tender crumb.
Cream of tartar: Acidic ingredient that reacts with baking soda to help the bread rise.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to produce gas that leavens the bread.
Milk: Hydrates the flour so the dough holds together and bakes moist.

“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.