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Dessert

Baking-powder Biscuit

A quick biscuit made with flour, butter, baking sweet milk, salt, and baking powder, baked in a hot oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Tracy, Suzanne. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Baking-powder Biscuit

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Baking-powder Biscuit

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the dough

  1. Take one quart of flour and two tablespoonfuls of butter.

  2. Add two teaspoonfuls of baking sweet milk enough to make a soft powder to the dough.

  3. Add one teaspoonful of salt.

  4. Sift the flour before it is measured.

  5. Add salt and baking powder to flour and sift together.

  6. Rub the butter into the flour with the fingers.

  7. Add the milk and mix to a smooth dough.

Shape

  1. Turn out upon the bread board.

  2. Dust with flour and roll into a sheet three-quarters of an inch in thickness.

  3. Cut into small biscuits.

Bake

  1. Butter the biscuit pan and dust lightly with flour.

  2. Lay the biscuit dough together and bake in a hot oven ten minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

706Calories
21 gProtein
21 gFat
107 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
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 Tracy, Suzanne. [from old catalog]. 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + milktop 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).

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
Forms the structure that holds the biscuit together as it bakes.
Butter
Rubbed into the flour to add tenderness and a flaky texture.
Milk
Provides moisture that brings the flour and fat into a smooth dough.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough so the biscuits rise and become light.

The step that matters

Bake in a hot oven. A hot oven makes the leavening gas expand quickly, so the biscuits rise before the crust sets. A cool oven gives flat, dense biscuits.

“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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