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Dessert

Beaten Biscuits

A biscuit dough made with flour, baking powder, butter, milk, eggs, and salt, baked until crisp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Landmarks Club · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Beaten Biscuits

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stiff dough

  1. Combine one quart flour, teaspoon salt, lard the size of an egg, and cold milk to make a stiff dough.

  2. Beat the dough until blisters form.

  3. Bake slowly for twenty-five minutes.

Make the sifted biscuits

  1. Sift four cups flour, half cup sugar, and two teaspoonfuls baking powder.

  2. Put the sifted dry ingredients into butter.

  3. Beat two eggs.

  4. Mix in one cup milk.

  5. Stir these gradually into the flour mixture.

  6. Roll the dough and cut out one-inch thick pieces.

  7. Bake, split open, and bake again until crisp and brown on the inner side.

  8. Keep in airtight tins.

Make the layered biscuits

  1. Mix one pint flour, half teaspoon salt, and two teaspoons baking powder.

  2. Add one rounded tablespoon of butter.

  3. Add enough milk to make a soft dough.

  4. Turn dough onto a board.

  5. Roll dough thin and cut dough.

  6. Butter one half.

  7. Put another half on top.

  8. Bake for ten minutes.

Make the muffin rings

  1. Make a batter of two cups flour and two cups sweet milk.

  2. Add beaten yolks.

  3. Add beaten whites.

  4. Fill hot iron muffin rings half full.

  5. Bake half an hour in a quick oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

948Calories
27 gProtein
39 gFat
120 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Landmarks Club. 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. See the original page.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Builds the structure that holds the biscuit crumb together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, making the biscuits rise and become light.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a rich flavor.
Milk
Hydrates the flour so the dough forms and the biscuits stay moist.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown.

The step that matters

Add the milk gradually and handle the dough lightly. Adding liquid gradually lets the flour absorb it evenly. Overworking the dough develops too much gluten, which makes biscuits tough instead of tender.

“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.

More biscuits recipes

Baking Powder 89Tea 60Soda 54Milk 50Savoy 50Ginger 42 See all 54 →

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