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Dessert

Sugar Biscuits

Sugar biscuits made with flour, butter, milk, brandy, carraway seeds, pearl-ash, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 ingredients
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Sugar Biscuits

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 ↓

Sugar Biscuits

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the dough

  1. Sift three pounds of flour.

  2. Cut one pound of butter.

  3. Add a pound and a half of powdered sugar.

  4. Add half a pint of milk.

  5. Add two tablespoonfuls of brandy.

  6. Dissolve a small teaspoonful of pearl-ash in water.

  7. Add four tablespoonfuls of carraway seeds.

  8. Cut the butter into the flour.

  9. Add the sugar and carraway seeds.

  10. Pour in the brandy, then the milk.

  11. Add the pearl-ash.

  12. Stir all well with a knife and mix thoroughly until a lump of dough forms.

  13. Flour a pasteboard and lay the dough on it.

Knead and shape

  1. Knead the dough very well.

  2. Divide the dough into eight or ten pieces and knead each piece separately.

  3. Put the pieces together and knead them very well into one lump.

  4. Cut the dough in half and roll it out into sheets about half an inch thick.

  5. Beat the sheets of dough very hard on both sides with a rolling pin.

  6. Cut the sheets into round cakes using the edge of a tumbler.

Bake and store

  1. Butter iron pans and lay the cakes in them.

  2. Bake the cakes until a very pale brown.

  3. If baked too long, they will lose their taste.

  4. Store the cakes in a stone jar, closely covered from the air, for several months.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

706Calories
21 gProtein
21 gFat
107 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 5 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Brandynot in our table0
Seednot 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 Eliza Leslie. 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. 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. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, 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
Forms the structure of the dough that holds the cakes together.
Butter
Cut into the flour to add richness and a tender, crumbly texture.
Sugar (in the method)
Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown lightly in the oven.
Milk
Adds moisture so the flour and butter form a workable dough.
Brandy
Adds liquid and aroma to the dough.
Carraway seeds
Adds a distinct aromatic flavour to the cakes.

The step that matters

Bake until very pale brown. Baking too long dries the cakes and drives off their flavour, as the record notes. Pulling them at a pale brown keeps the taste intact.

“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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