Name: Scones Made with Baking Powder
Ingredients: 1½ lbs flour; 2 teaspoons baking powder; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 lb butter; 1 lb castor sugar; 6 oz sultanas; 3 yolks of eggs; 4 whites of eggs; 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 ↓

Scones Made with Baking Powder

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

Put the flour in a basin.
Add baking powder and salt.
Rub in the butter.
Add castor sugar and sultanas.
Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately.
Add the eggs to the flour mixture.
Add milk until the mixture is the consistency of dough.
Knead well and press out to about 1 inch thick.

Shape and bake

Cut into three-cornered pieces.
Brush the tops with yolk of egg.
Bake in a quick oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 to 30 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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 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

Flour: Forms the structure that holds the scones together as they bake.
Butter: Rubbed into the flour to create a tender, crumbly texture.
Eggs: Add richness, structure and moisture to the dough.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking so the scones rise and become light.
Castor sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the scones brown in the oven.
Milk: Hydrates the flour so the mixture forms a workable dough.

The step that matters

Knead well and press out to about 1 inch thick. Kneading develops enough gluten for the dough to hold its shape, while pressing to an even thickness helps the scones bake and rise evenly rather than unevenly.

“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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Scones Made with Baking Powder