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Madison Biscuit

A yeast‑leavened biscuit made with flour, sugar, egg, potato, and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.) · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and biscuit match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 889 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Madison Biscuit

two quarts of flour will make about 50 biscuits

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. To each quart of flour, put ½ pint of yeast, 1 egg well beaten, 1 large potato, 1 tablespoonful of white sugar, and 1 of lard.

  2. Put the yeast, egg and sugar together.

  3. Mash the potato and mix in with milk to moisten, then well into the flour as for rolls.

  4. Let the dough rise for four to six hours in warm weather.

Shape and bake

  1. When the dough is light, roll it thin, handling it as little as possible.

  2. Cut the dough into biscuits and put them into a pan to rise until it is time to bake.

  3. Bake the biscuits for ten or fifteen minutes.

  4. Eat the biscuits as soon as they are baked.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

909Calories
27 gProtein
14 gFat
167 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Biscuit1 medium (45g)166
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

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

By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.). 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.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Biscuit + potatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
Provides the structure that holds the dough together as it rises and bakes.
Yeast (in the method)
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Egg
Adds richness and helps bind the dough, adding structure and tenderness.
Potato
Adds moisture and starch, keeping the biscuits soft.
White sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning.
Lard (in the method)
Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and gives a short, flaky texture.

The step that matters

Handling the dough when rolling. Working the dough too much develops gluten and makes it tough. Rolling it thin and handling it as little as possible keeps the biscuits light and tender.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, 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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