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 ↓
Graham Biscuit
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Combine three cups Graham flour, one cup white flour, three cups milk, two tablespoonfuls lard, one heaping tablespoonful white sugar, one saltspoonful salt, and two teaspoonfuls of the Breadmaker's Baking Powder. Mix the ingredients.
Take one pint Graham flour, nearly a quart boiling water or milk, and one teaspoonful salt. Scald the flour, adding the salt, until you have a soft dough.
Shape and bake
Roll the dough to nearly an inch thick. Cut into round cakes.
Lay the cakes upon a hot buttered tin or pan.
Bake them in the hottest oven you can get ready. Bake as you do the white soda biscuit.
Alternatively, spread them on a hot tin and set them on a red-hot stove.
Split and butter while hot. Serve cold or hot.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Lard | 1 tbsp (12.8g) | 115 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| 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.
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.
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
- Graham flour
- Provides the coarse, hearty body and nutty flavour of the biscuit.
- White flour
- Adds lightness and a finer crumb to the mostly whole-grain dough.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour into a soft dough and adds richness and browning.
- Lard
- Adds fat for tenderness and a short, flaky texture.
- Breadmaker's baking powder
- Releases gas to make the biscuits rise and become light.
The step that matters
Scald the flour until a soft dough forms. Pouring boiling liquid onto Graham flour gelatinises its starch and softens the bran, so the dough becomes pliable. Too little liquid leaves it stiff and crumbly, while too much makes it sticky and hard to shape.
“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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