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Dessert

Treacle Scones

A sweet scone made with flour, cinnamon, treacle, sugar, and spices, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Treacle Scones

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the flour, cinnamon, lard or butter, treacle, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, mixed spice, and salt.

  3. Gradually add buttermilk until a stiff dough forms.

  4. Divide the dough into four pieces and roll each out.

Shape and bake

  1. Cut into four scones, brush with beaten egg, and bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

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.

  1. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 scones together as they rise.
Lard or butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and helps create a flaky texture.
Treacle
Adds sweetness, dark colour and a rich, molasses-like flavour with some moisture.
Bicarbonate of soda
Reacts with the acidity in the dough to produce gas, helping the scones rise.
Buttermilk
Its acidity activates the bicarbonate of soda and moistens the dough into a workable stiff texture.

The step that matters

Gradually add buttermilk until a stiff dough forms. Adding too much liquid makes the dough sticky and tough, while too little leaves dry, crumbly scones. Adding it gradually lets you stop once the dough just comes together, since gluten develops more with overworking.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, buttermilk, egg):

  1. Cinnamonthe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Jalapenofits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, buttermilk, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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