Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Dropped Scones
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
In a bowl, mix the baking soda, cream of tartar, and a pinch of salt until smooth.
Add the flour and rub in the butter until well combined.
Gradually add buttermilk to form a thick batter and beat well with a wooden spoon.
Cook on the girdle
Heat a girdle (griddle) over the fire and grease it with a piece of fat or suet.
Drop spoonfuls of batter onto the girdle, leaving about 2 inches between each.
When air bubbles rise and burst, slide a flat knife under the scones and turn them.
Cook and brown the other side, greasing the girdle again before adding more batter.
Serve
Serve very hot.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,721 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,973 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Cream + buttermilktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together674 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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 as they cook.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the cream of tartar and buttermilk to produce gas that lifts the scones.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter so the baking soda reacts and helps the scones rise.
- Buttermilk
- Supplies the liquid that forms the batter and its acidity for leavening.
- Butter
- Rubbed into the flour to add richness and a tender texture.
The step that matters
Turning the scones. Turn them only once air bubbles rise and burst on the surface. Turning too early tears the set base and leaves the scones flat and doughy, because the batter has not yet firmed enough to hold its shape.
“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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