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Seed Biscuits

Biscuits made with flour, sugar, butter, caraway seeds, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 12 ingredients
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Seed Biscuits

Why it works: Biscuit and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 388 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Seed Biscuits

6 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Beat the butter to a cream.

  2. Stir in the flour, sugar, and caraway seeds.

  3. Add the eggs and whisk until well blended.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough and cut out biscuits with a round cutter.

  2. Bake the biscuits in a moderate oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

  3. Brush the tops with a little milk or egg white and sprinkle with sugar.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

412Calories
18 gProtein
22 gFat
36 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 7 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Biscuit1 medium (45g)166
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Brandynot 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 Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

  1. Biscuit + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together388 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Biscuit + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together368 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

  5. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the dough and add richness and structure to the biscuits.
Milk
Adds moisture to the surface and helps the tops brown when brushed on.

The step that matters

Bake the biscuits in a moderate oven. Baking time sets the texture. Too short leaves the centre of the dough doughy and raw, while too long dries the biscuits out and over-browns the tops, since the sugar on top caramelises quickly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, milk, egg, biscuit, almond, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, milk, egg, biscuit, almond, 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.

More seed biscuits recipes

Caraway 9 See all 3 →

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