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Dessert

Cream Tartar Biscuit

A biscuit made with flour, butter or lard, baking powder, salt, sugar, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Johnson, Vt. Congregational church. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Cream Tartar Biscuit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Measure 1 quart flour and 1 cupful butter or lard.

  2. Add 4 teaspoonfuls of Royal and butter, baking powder, a little salt, 1 teaspoonful sugar, and 1 pint of milk.

  3. Sift the baking powder through the flour, rub in the shortening with the sugar and salt.

  4. Mix with the milk as soft as can be handled, roll out and cut with a biscuit cutter.

Bake

  1. Lay close together in a dripping pan and bake in a very hot oven for about 20 minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

755Calories
21 gProtein
21 gFat
120 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

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

By Johnson, Vt. Congregational church. [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.

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).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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
Provides the structure that holds the biscuits together as they bake.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and helps create flaky layers.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the biscuits rise and become light.
Milk
Hydrates the flour to form a soft dough and adds moisture.

The step that matters

Mix with the milk as soft as can be handled. Overworking or adding too much milk develops gluten and makes biscuits tough. A soft, minimally handled dough keeps them tender and light.

“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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