Name: Baking Powder
Ingredients: 9 ounces bi-carbonate of soda; 4 ounces cream of tartar; 4 ounces tartaric acid; 10 ounces wheat flour

Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Baking Powder

Ingredients

9 ounces bi-carbonate of soda
4 ounces cream of tartar
4 ounces tartaric acid
10 ounces wheat flour

Directions

Sift all ingredients together several times.
Store in airtight boxes or wide-mouthed bottles, labeled.

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.

Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,481 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Cream + wheattop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together681 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Bi-carbonate of soda: Provides the carbon dioxide that makes the baking powder leaven dough and batter.
Cream of tartar: Acts as an acid that reacts with the soda to release gas when moistened and heated.
Tartaric acid: Adds a second acid that supports the reaction with the soda, adding tang.
Wheat flour: Absorbs moisture and keeps the powder dry, separating the reactive ingredients until use.

“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.