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Dessert

Scotch Soda Scones

A quick scone made with flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, and buttermilk, baked on a hot stove.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Scotch Soda Scones

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Mix flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Pour in buttermilk and mix to form a paste.

  3. Turn the paste onto a floured surface and knead gently until smooth.

  4. Roll out to ¼ inch thick and cut into shapes.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook on a hot stove until browned on one side. Flip and finish cooking.

  2. Serve hot in a folded napkin.

  3. Let cool wrapped in a cloth.

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 + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Cream + buttermilktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together674 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the scones together as they cook.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in buttermilk to produce gas that makes the scones rise.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that works with the baking soda to lift the dough and add tang.
Buttermilk
Supplies moisture and acid that activate the leavening and tenderize the dough.

The step that matters

Cook on a hot stove until browned on one side. Enough heat is needed to set the outside and brown the surface before flipping. Cooking too gently leaves the scones pale, doughy, and underdeveloped in the centre.

“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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