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Dessert

Soda Scones

Soda scones are small cakes made with flour, lard, sugar, baking powder, milk, sultanas, and beaten egg for washing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Soda Scones

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot 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. Rub the lard into the flour until well combined.

  3. Stir in the sugar, baking powder, and sultanas.

  4. Mix everything into a paste with the milk.

Shape and bake

  1. Divide the mixture into six portions and shape into balls.

  2. Roll each ball out into a cake about six inches in diameter.

  3. Mark a cross on each cake with a knife.

  4. Wash the tops with the beaten egg.

  5. Bake for 15 minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Forms the main structure of the scones as the dough sets in the oven.
Lard
Rubbed into the flour to add fat, giving a tender, crumbly texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, helping the scones rise in the oven.
Milk
Binds the dry ingredients into a paste and adds moisture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown in the oven.
Egg
Brushed on top as a wash to give the tops a glossy, browned finish.

The step that matters

Mix everything into a paste with the milk. Mixing too much develops gluten and makes the scones tough, while too little leaves dry pockets of flour. Mix just until the dough comes together.

“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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