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Dessert

Indian Light Biscuit

A light biscuit made with Indian meal, wheat flour, milk, eggs, baking soda, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Indian Light Biscuit

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the batter

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

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

  3. In another bowl, whisk together the milk and eggs.

  4. Pour the milk and egg mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well.

Fill and bake

  1. Butter a sufficient number of cups or small deep tins.

  2. Nearly fill the cups with the batter.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in a little warm water and stir it into the batter just before baking.

  4. Bake in the hot oven until puffed and golden.

  5. Turn them out of the cups and serve warm with butter.

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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Flour and butter 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and help the biscuits set and puff as they bake.
Baking soda
Reacts to lighten the batter so the biscuits rise and become airy.
Indian meal
Forms the main body of the batter, giving the biscuits their grainy structure.
Wheat flour
Adds structure and tenderness to the batter alongside the cornmeal.
Milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flours and adds richness and browning.

The step that matters

Stir in the baking soda just before baking. Baking soda starts reacting as soon as it meets the batter, so delaying the bake lets it lose its lift and leaves the biscuits flat and dense.

“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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