Name: Baking Powder Biscuit
Ingredients: 1 pint of flour; 1 teaspoonful of salt; 1 cup of milk; 1 dessertspoonful of lard; 1 heaping teaspoonful of 1 cup of milk

Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Baking Powder Biscuit

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the dough

Combine 1 pint of flour and 1 dessert spoonful of lard.
Add 1 teaspoonful of salt and 1 heaping teaspoonful of baking powder.
Add 1 cup of milk.
Mix with a spoon until pretty soft, turn onto a biscuit board and work until quite smooth.

Bake

Bake in a hot oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

719Calories

21 gProtein

22 gFat

107 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 4 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Lard	1 tbsp (12.8g)	115
Salt	1 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 Colville, Jessie Henderson. [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.

Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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.
Lard: Fat that coats flour particles, giving a short, tender crumb.
Baking powder (in the method): Releases carbon dioxide when heated, making the biscuits rise.
Milk: Supplies moisture that hydrates the flour and binds the dough.