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Dessert

Blanche Kammerer

A biscuit made with flour, sugar, salt, butter, lard, milk, and baking powder, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Blanche Kammerer

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the dough

  1. Sift four cups of flour with four level teaspoons of baking powder, two tablespoons of sugar, and one-half teaspoon of salt.

  2. Rub the dry mixture into one-fourth cup of butter and one-fourth cup of lard until well incorporated.

  3. Add one pint of milk and mix until dough forms.

Shape and bake

  1. Toss dough on a floured board, pat it out to one inch thick, and cut with a biscuit cutter.

  2. Brush the cut biscuits with melted butter or cream and bake in a hot oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

870Calories
21 gProtein
34 gFat
120 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
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 Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Milk + teatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together738 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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 main structure that holds the biscuits together as they bake.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough so the biscuits rise and become light.
Butter
Adds fat that coats flour and gives a tender, rich texture.
Lard
Adds fat that keeps the crumb tender and helps create flaky layers.
Milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and binds the dough.
Sugar
Adds mild sweetness and helps the crust brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Add the milk and mix only until the dough forms. Mixing too long develops gluten in the flour, which makes the biscuits tough rather than 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.

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