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Baking

Various Biscuits

A collection of nineteenth-century British biscuit recipes, including shell, York, Bath Oliver, Edinburgh, digestive, Kent and Shrewsbury biscuits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Wells, Robert · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 38 ingredients
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Why it works: Biscuit and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 312 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Various Biscuits

Ingredients

Directions

Shell Biscuits

  1. Make all into a good dough.

  2. Roll the dough into sheets half an inch thick.

  3. Cut with an oval-pointed cutter.

  4. Place the shapes on a crimp board and curl them up with a knife or scraper.

  5. Put them on clean dry tins.

  6. Bake in moderate heat.

York and Machine Biscuits

  1. Mix as before into a dough.

  2. Roll out the dough 1/4 inch thick.

  3. Cut into long strips, then cut them diamond shape or square.

  4. Dock them on the table or crimping board as preferred.

  5. Bake in a rather warm oven.

  6. Mix up the same as the others.

  7. Roll out a sheet 3/8 inch thick as printed (% inch).

  8. Cut out in various forms, dock them, and bake on clean dry tins in a moderate oven.

Bath Oliver and other biscuits

  1. Make the milk warm.

  2. Add the sugar, yeast and a handful of flour to form a ferment.

  3. Let it ferment for an hour and a half.

  4. Rub the butter into the remaining flour and make all into a smooth dough.

  5. Let it stand about two hours.

  6. Roll it out thin.

  7. Cut the biscuits out with a cutter about three inches in diameter.

  8. Dock them well and place on clean tins sprinkled with water.

  9. Wash over with milk when all are off the cutter.

  10. Put them in a steam press or drawers for half an hour.

  11. Bake in a cool oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

915Calories
31 gProtein
23 gFat
145 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 11 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Biscuit1 medium (45g)166
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Spreadnot in our table0
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 Wells, Robert. 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. Biscuit + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together312 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + biscuittop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together889 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Milk
Adds moisture and richness, and helps the dough brown on the surface.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the biscuits brown in the oven.
Eggs
Add richness and structure, and help bind the dough.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat for tenderness and a short, crumbly texture.

The step that matters

Bake in a cool oven. Baking in a cool oven dries the biscuits slowly without browning them too fast, so they stay pale and firm rather than scorched or raw in the centre.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, bread, flour, spread, sugar, biscuit, egg):

  1. Cinnamonthe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Jalapenofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, bread, flour, spread, sugar, biscuit, egg. 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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