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Dessert

Tibbie Shiels’ Scones

A quick scone made with buttermilk, flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt, baked on a griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Tibbie Shiels’ Scones

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl.

  2. Combine the baking soda and cream of tartar on a plate, smoothing with the back of a teaspoon.

  3. Mix the baking soda mixture with the flour, then pour in the buttermilk and mix thoroughly.

  4. Flour a baking board.

  5. Pour the batter onto the board, adding more flour as needed to prevent sticking.

  6. Knead the batter until it forms a dough stiff enough to roll out.

Shape and bake

  1. Divide the dough into two pieces and roll each into a round about 1 inch thick.

  2. Cut each round into four pieces and place on a heated griddle.

  3. Bake for 15 minutes, turning once.

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 dough once kneaded and rolled.
Cream of tartar
Reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that lightens the scones.
Baking soda
Provides the leavening that makes the scones rise when combined with acid.
Buttermilk
Adds acidity to activate the baking soda and gives moisture and tenderness.

The step that matters

Knead only until the dough is stiff enough to roll out. Kneading develops gluten, which toughens the scones if overworked. Stopping once the dough holds its shape keeps them tender while still giving enough structure to rise well.

“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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