Skip to main content
Dessert

Soda Scones

Soda scones are quick, leavened biscuits made with flour, baking soda, tartaric acid, buttermilk, and baked on a griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 Scones

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and tartaric acid.

  2. Gradually mix in buttermilk to form a very soft paste.

  3. Sprinkle flour on a clean surface and turn the paste out onto it.

Shape and cook

  1. Roll the paste to less than ½ inch thick and cut into rounds using a cutter.

  2. Preheat a griddle or hot plate and place the scones on it.

  3. Bake for 5 minutes on each side 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).

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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the scones together once shaped and cooked.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid to release carbon dioxide, helping the scones rise.
Tartaric acid
Acidic partner to baking soda, producing the gas that lifts the dough.
Buttermilk (in the method)
Moistens the flour into a soft paste and adds acidity that supports the rise.

The step that matters

Gradually mix in buttermilk to form a very soft paste. Adding liquid slowly lets you stop once the dough is soft but still workable. Too much liquid makes the paste sticky and hard to shape, while too little leaves dry, dense scones. Mix only until combined to avoid developing gluten, which toughens the 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.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes