Why it works: Potato and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Potato Scone
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the potatoes
Pare and boil the potatoes until tender, then drain and mash them until smooth.
Make the dough
In a bowl, mix equal parts of Graham flour and white flour, reserving a handful for kneading.
Stir the baking soda into the flour mixture and sift it at least twice.
Add the mashed potatoes to the flour mixture and mix well.
Gradually add sour milk to form a firm dough.
Cook
Roll out the dough and bake on a griddle over medium heat, browning both sides.
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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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,481 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Mashed potatoes
- Adds moisture and tenderness to the dough.
- White flour
- Provides the main structure of the dough.
- Graham flour
- Adds a nutty flavor and a more open, coarse texture.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the milk to produce gas that lightens the scone.
- Sour milk
- Supplies acidity to activate the baking soda and moistens the dough.
- Cream of tartar
- Supplies acid in place of sour milk, so the baking soda can still rise.
The step that matters
Gradually add sour milk to form a firm dough. Adding the milk a little at a time lets you stop once the dough is firm. Too much liquid makes the dough sticky and hard to shape, and overworking it develops gluten, which makes the scone tough.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cream, milk):
- Arrowrootfits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Leekfits about as well
- Spinachfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cream, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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