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Dessert

Tavern Biscuit

A sweet biscuit made with flour, sugar, butter, yeast, milk, eggs, mace, nutmeg, and brandy or wine, baked quickly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Randolph (1762–1828) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Tavern Biscuit

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the dough

  1. Combine one pound flour, half a pound sugar, half a pound butter, mace, nutmeg, and a glass of brandy or wine.

  2. Wet the mixture with milk.

  3. Knead until well combined.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough thin and cut into shapes.

  2. Bake quickly.

Mix again and rest overnight

  1. Rub half a pound sugar into three pounds flour and sift.

  2. Pour on half a pint good yeast.

  3. Beat six eggs.

  4. Add half a pint milk.

  5. Mix all together.

  6. Knead well; if not soft enough, add more milk. It should be softer than bread.

  7. Make it at night.

  8. In the morning, if well risen, work in six ounces butter.

Bake and dry

  1. Bake it in small rolls.

  2. When cold, slice it, lay it on tin sheets, and dry in the oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

845Calories
28 gProtein
27 gFat
121 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Macenot in our table0

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

By Mary Randolph (1762–1828). 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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. 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 of the dough once it is kneaded and baked.
Butter
Adds fat, which makes the biscuit short and tender.
Eggs
Add richness and help bind the dough.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise overnight.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown in the oven.
Milk
Adds moisture so the dough can be kneaded to a soft texture.

The step that matters

Kneading to the right softness. The dough should be softer than bread, so add milk only as needed. Too much flour or too little liquid makes a dense, dry biscuit, while the yeast needs a soft dough to rise well.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, milk, egg, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, milk, egg, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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