Skip to main content
Dessert

Soda Scones

Soda scones are made from flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, and buttermilk, formed into dough and baked on a griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Soda Scones

Ingredients

Directions

Mix and shape

  1. In a bowl, mix the baking soda and salt until smooth with the flour.

  2. Add enough buttermilk to form a soft dough.

  3. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead lightly.

  4. Shape the dough into two rounds, each ½ inch thick.

  5. Cut each round into four scones.

Cook

  1. Bake on a floured griddle over medium heat.

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. Cream + buttermilktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together674 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure of the scones as the dough sets during cooking.
Baking soda
Reacts with an acid in the dough to release gas that makes the scones rise.
Cream of tartar
Provides acidity that reacts with the baking soda to help the scones rise.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and acidity, which keeps the crumb tender and helps the leavening react.

The step that matters

Knead the dough lightly. Gluten in flour forms stronger networks the more the dough is worked. Light kneading keeps the scones tender, while overworking makes them 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.

You might also like

Buttermilk PieButtermilk Pie12 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes