Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Potato Scones
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
Boil the potatoes until very well done, then drain and let them dry with the cover off.
Mash the potatoes very smooth, adding the butter, egg, and cream.
Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder, then add to the potato mixture.
When the mixture is quite cold, add the extract and mix into a firm dough.
Shape and bake
Flour a board with Graham flour, turn out the dough, and roll it to a thickness of 1 inch.
Cut the dough into oblong pieces, approximately 4 inches by 6 inches.
Bake on a hot griddle, pricking with a fork to prevent blistering.
Serve warm with butter.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + clovetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,297 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Flour + clovetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,671 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
- Potatoes
- Provide the bulk of the dough and a soft, moist, tender crumb when mashed smooth.
- Graham flour
- Adds structure to the dough so it holds its shape when rolled and cut.
- Egg
- Binds the mashed potato and flour together and adds richness to the dough.
- Cream
- Adds fat and moisture, keeping the scones tender and rich.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during cooking so the scones rise and lighten.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
The step that matters
Pricking the scones before griddling. Pricking with a fork lets steam escape from the dough, which prevents blistering and uneven puffing on the hot griddle. Letting the potatoes dry and the mixture cool before adding the extract keeps the dough firm enough to roll and cut cleanly.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, flour, butter, egg, cream):
- Nutmegfits better
- Capersfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, flour, butter, egg, cream. 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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