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Corn-meal Scones

Cornmeal scones are quick baked squares made with cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, lard, salt, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Corn-meal Scones

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Sift together cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, and salt.

  2. Rub in the lard until well combined.

  3. Add beaten eggs and milk, mixing into a smooth dough.

  4. Flour a board, turn out the dough, and knead it quickly to smooth it.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough to 1/8 inch thickness and cut into squares larger than soda crackers.

  2. Fold each square in half to form triangles.

  3. Bake on a hot griddle for 8 to 10 minutes, browning both sides.

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. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Cornmeal
Forms the main body of the scone and gives it a coarse, crumbly texture.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add richness and structure as they set.
Milk
Hydrates the cornmeal into a smooth dough and adds moisture.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough to lift and lighten the scones.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and keeps the scones short.

The step that matters

Knead quickly and briefly. Overworking a dough develops gluten and toughens baked goods, so a quick knead only smooths the dough without making the scones tough.

“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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