Name: Soda and Cream of Tartar Biscuit
Ingredients: 4 cups all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2 teaspoons cream of tartar; 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt; 2 tablespoons lard or butter, melted; Milk, as needed

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 ↓

Soda and Cream of Tartar Biscuit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dry mix

In a bowl, combine baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt; mash smoothly with a knife.
Mix this mixture evenly into the flour, then sift it two or three times.

Make and bake the biscuits

Add the melted lard or butter, rubbing it between your hands to break up lumps.
Pour in enough milk to form a dough that can be rolled out, mixing lightly with your fingers.
Roll out the dough quickly, cut into biscuits, and bake immediately for best results.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

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

All-purpose flour: Forms the main structure of the biscuits as its proteins hydrate into gluten.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to produce gas that makes the biscuits rise.
Cream of tartar: Provides the acid that activates the baking soda, giving lift and a slight tang.
Lard or butter: Adds fat that coats flour particles, tenderizing the crumb and adding flakiness.
Milk: Hydrates the flour to form a dough and adds moisture and richness.

The step that matters

Bake immediately after cutting. Baking soda and cream of tartar start producing gas as soon as they are moistened, so waiting lets much of the lift escape before the oven sets the structure.

“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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Soda and Cream of Tartar Biscuit