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 ↓
Soda Biscuits
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a warm oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the dough
In a clean bowl, combine the flour, butter, and sugar.
Make a well in the center, then beat the eggs and add them.
Dissolve the soda in a little water and add it to the mixture.
Mix everything into a soft paste, adding milk if necessary.
Shape and bake
Turn the dough onto a floured surface and roll it to about ½ inch thick.
Cut out rounds with a small cutter and place them on greased baking sheets.
Bake in a warm oven at 400°F (200°C) for 12 to 18 minutes.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the biscuits together as they bake.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavour in the baked biscuits.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add richness and structure to the biscuits.
- Carbonate of soda
- Reacts with the mixture to produce gas that helps the biscuits rise.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the biscuits and helps them brown lightly in the oven.
The step that matters
Mix everything into a soft paste, adding milk if necessary.. Too much liquid makes the dough sticky and hard to cut, while too little leaves biscuits dry and crumbly. Add milk gradually so the dough reaches a soft, workable consistency.
“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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