Name: Drop Scones
Ingredients: 1 lb flour; 1 pinch salt; 1½ teaspoons baking soda; ½ teaspoon cream of tartar; ½ lb brown sugar; 1 teaspoon syrup; buttermilk (as needed to make batter)

Why it works: Syrup and buttermilk match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Drop Scones

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking soda, cream of tartar, brown sugar, and syrup.
Add buttermilk gradually to create a batter.
Beat the mixture with a beater until well combined.

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.

Syrup + buttermilktop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together124 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,973 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).