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Dessert

Drop Scones

Drop scones are quick, batter-based scones cooked on a greased griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Drop Scones

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift the flour, salt, cream of tartar, and baking soda into a bowl, then add the sugar.

  2. Make a well in the center, add the egg, and gradually mix in the milk until a smooth batter forms.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour tablespoonfuls of the batter onto a hot greased griddle.

  2. Cook until well risen and browned underneath, then flip and brown the other side.

  3. Butter the scones and serve hot.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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
Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the scones their structure.
Egg
Binds the batter and its proteins help set the scones as they cook.
Baking soda
Reacts with the cream of tartar to release gas that lifts the scones.
Cream of tartar
Supplies the acid that activates the baking soda and helps the scones rise.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and keeps the batter moist and pourable.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown during cooking.

The step that matters

Cooking on a hot griddle. The griddle must be hot so the leavening gas expands quickly and the outside sets before spreading. On a cool griddle the scones spread flat and rise poorly, while a griddle that is too hot browns the outside before the centre cooks through.

“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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