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Dessert

Potato Tea Biscuit

A biscuit made with oats, barley flour, mashed potatoes, shortening, and baking powder, baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Barley and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 165 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Potato Tea Biscuit

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

  1. Grind the rolled oats through a food chopper.

  2. Add salt and baking powder to the oats.

  3. Cut or rub the cold shortening into the mixture.

  4. Rub the mashed potatoes into the flour mixture.

  5. Add just enough cold liquid to make the mixture cling together; do not knead.

  6. Place the dough on a floured board and roll it to ½ inch thick.

Shape and bake

  1. Cut the dough into rounds and place them in lightly floured biscuit tins.

  2. Bake for 20 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

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. Barley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Oats + barleytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together224 recipes

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

  3. Oats + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together154 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Barley + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together582 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ground rolled oats
Provide the bulk and a mild, nutty flavour in place of part of the flour.
Barley flour
Forms the main structure of the dough once combined with liquid.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the biscuits rise and become light.
Shortening
Coats flour particles and keeps the biscuits tender and flaky when cut in cold.
Mashed potatoes
Add moisture and softness, helping the biscuits stay tender.

The step that matters

Add just enough cold liquid; do not knead. Too much liquid or kneading develops structure and toughens the dough, while cold, minimally worked dough keeps the fat in pieces that create a tender, flaky texture.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oats, barley, flour):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oats, barley, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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