Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Patent Flour
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dry mix
Pulverize the flour.
Mix the baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt into the flour, incorporating the dry ingredients thoroughly.
Make the dough
Add milk and flour to form a soft dough.
Add a little shortening.
Bake
Bake in tins.
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 + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dough together and sets as it bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the dough to release gas, causing it to rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the dough so it reacts with the baking soda to produce lift.
- Milk
- Adds moisture that hydrates the flour and lets the dough come together.
- Shortening
- Adds fat that coats flour particles and makes the texture more tender.
The step that matters
Incorporate the dry ingredients thoroughly. Baking soda must be evenly distributed through the flour; clumps react in pockets, leaving some areas bitter, soapy, or unevenly risen.
“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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