Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Cheese Biscuits
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.
Warm the butter in the milk until dissolved.
Mix the butter and milk with the flour to form a stiff paste.
Beat the dough with a rolling pin until smooth.
Roll out the dough thin and cut into rounds the size of a wine glass.
Bake for 6 to 10 minutes at 400°F (200°C).
Add celery salt for extra flavor if desired.
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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Butter + milktop 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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Flour + celerytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,905 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + celerytop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,491 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
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
Swap the celery
The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, flour):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Jalapenofits better
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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