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Dessert

Dropped Scones

A quick batter of flour, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, egg, buttermilk, and salt, dropped onto a skillet and cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Dropped Scones

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg well.

  2. Add all the other ingredients and mix with buttermilk to form a very smooth batter.

Cook and cool

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a well-greased skillet.

  2. Let them brown nicely, then turn over.

  3. Once done, spread them on a clean cloth to cool.

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. Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the scones together as they set.
Egg
Adds richness and helps bind the batter while it sets.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas, helping the scones rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter so it reacts with baking soda to lift the scones.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and acidity that loosens the batter and helps it brown.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown in the skillet.

The step that matters

Turn over only once the underside is browned. Turning too early tears the soft batter and leaves the centre raw, while waiting for a nicely browned underside sets the structure and gives an even golden colour.

“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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