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Dessert

Hovis Scones

A quick baked scone made with Hovis flour, butter, sugar, Paisley flour, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Hovis Scones

Oven, in the book's wordsA sharp oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a sharp oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the Hovis flour with the Paisley flour.

  3. Rub in the butter until well combined.

Make and bake the scones

  1. In another bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until smooth.

  2. Add the egg mixture and milk to the flour mixture and stir to form a smooth dough.

  3. Brush the top with milk or egg before baking.

  4. Bake in the preheated oven until golden.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 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

Hovis flour
Provides the main structure of the dough and the wholesome, nutty base flavour.
Butter
Rubbed into the flour to add richness and a tender, crumbly texture.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add richness, structure and colour to the baked crumb.
Milk
Moistens the flour so the dough comes together, and its surface browns in the oven.
Paisley flour
Adds a second flour to the dough, contributing to its texture and crumb.
Fine castor sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the scones brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Rub in the butter until well combined. If the butter is not evenly worked into the flour, it leaves greasy or dense patches. Cold fat cut into flour creates small pockets that give scones a light, crumbly texture.

“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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