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Dessert

Soda Scones

Soda scones are baked biscuits made with butter, flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and buttermilk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Soda Scones

twelve pieces
Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Rub the butter into the flour until well combined.

  3. Add the baking soda and cream of tartar, mixing thoroughly.

  4. Gradually add buttermilk to form a soft dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Divide the dough into twelve pieces and roll each into a scone shape.

  2. Prick the tops of the scones with a fork and glaze with buttermilk.

  3. Bake for 10 minutes 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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cream + buttermilktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together674 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + buttermilktop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,674 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour 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 main structure that holds the scones together as they bake.
Butter
Rubbed into the flour to add richness and a tender, crumbly texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the cream of tartar and buttermilk to produce gas that lifts the scones.
Cream of tartar
Supplies acid that reacts with the baking soda to help the scones rise.
Buttermilk
Moistens the dough and its acidity reacts with the baking soda for rise.

The step that matters

Add the buttermilk gradually. Adding too much liquid at once makes the dough sticky and tough. Stopping when the dough is just soft keeps the scones tender, since overworking develops gluten.

“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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