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Dessert

Wheatmeal Scones

A quick wheatmeal scone made with baking soda, cream of tartar, butter, egg, and milk, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Wheatmeal Scones

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.

Mix the dough

  1. Sift together baking soda, cream of tartar, and wheat flour.

  2. Work in the butter until well combined.

  3. Mix in the beaten egg and milk until thoroughly combined.

Bake

  1. Spoon the mixture into greased small patty tins.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Baking soda
Reacts with cream of tartar to release carbon dioxide, which lifts the scones.
Cream of tartar
Acts as the acid partner to baking soda, producing gas that makes the scones rise.
Wheat flour
Provides the structure, which sets as the starches gelatinise in the oven.
Butter
Coats the flour and shortens gluten, tenderising the crumb and adding richness.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds structure and richness to the crumb.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and adds moisture to the crumb.

The step that matters

Mix in the beaten egg and milk until thoroughly combined. Mixing only until no dry flour remains keeps the scones tender. Overmixing develops gluten in the wheat flour, which makes the scones tough and dense.

“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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