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 ↓
Grease Scones
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
Add enough thick cream to form a dough.
Shape and cook
Roll out the dough thinly and cut it into four pieces.
Bake on a hot griddle until golden brown.
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 + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure that holds the scone together.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that lifts the dough so the scones rise.
- Thick cream
- Adds moisture and fat, binding the dough and tenderising the crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds mild sweetness and helps the surface brown.
The step that matters
Add enough thick cream to form a dough.. Add the cream gradually and mix only until the dough just comes together. Overworking develops gluten and makes scones tough, while too much liquid makes them spread and turn dense.
“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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