Skip to main content
Baking

Maryland Biscuit

A quick biscuit made with flour, lard, cold water, and salt, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Maryland Biscuit

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the dough

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

  2. In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt.

  3. Add the lard and mix until crumbly.

  4. Gradually add cold water and knead the dough well.

  5. Beat the dough for 10 minutes.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into biscuits and place them on a baking sheet.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure of the dough once hydrated and worked.
Lard
Fat that coats flour particles, creating a tender, flaky texture.
Cold water
Hydrates the flour so the dough can form and develop gluten.

The step that matters

Beat the dough for 10 minutes. Beating and kneading develop gluten, giving structure and chew. Overworking can make biscuits tough, so keep the dough cold and handle it gently enough that the lard stays in small pieces.

“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.

You might also like

Delicate CakeDelicate Cake246 recipesBoiled FrostingBoiled Frosting69 recipesCitron CakeCitron Cake68 recipesScotch CakeScotch Cake63 recipes