Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Sweet 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar.
Make the dough
Beat the egg and add it to the dry ingredients.
Gradually add milk until a soft dough forms.
Fold in currants if desired.
Turn the dough onto a floured surface and roll to about ½ inch thick.
Cut into rounds and place on a baking sheet.
Bake
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,475 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the scones together as they bake.
- Egg
- Binds the dough and adds richness and structure to the crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas that makes the scones rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Provides acidity that activates the baking soda, helping the scones rise and brown.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the scones brown in the oven.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour to form a soft dough and adds moisture to the scones.
The step that matters
Gradually add milk until a soft dough forms. Too much liquid makes the dough sticky and dense, while too little leaves dry, crumbly scones. Adding milk gradually lets you stop once the dough just comes together, since flour absorbs liquid differently each time.
Swap the currant
The recipe marks currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, sugar, cream, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, sugar, 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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