Maryland Biscuit
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Mix 1½ lbs. of the best flour, 4 oz. of lard, and ½ teaspoonful of salt with cold water until the dough is just as stiff as possible.
Put the dough on a board and knead until it is perfectly pliable and makes a popping sound under your hands from the air bubbles breaking in it, and until you can pull it down in long thin strips.
Shape and bake
Break off pieces about the size of an egg.
Mould them into round balls about ¾ in. thick, flatten with a rolling pin.
Stick through 5 or 6 times with a fork.
Bake in a well‑heated oven for ½ hour.
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
What each ingredient does
- Flour (in the method)
- Forms the gluten network that gives the biscuit its structure.
- Lard (in the method)
- Adds fat that shortens the dough, giving a tender, flaky crumb.
The step that matters
Kneading the dough. Kneading develops gluten so the dough becomes pliable and stretchy enough to pull into thin strips. Under-kneaded dough bakes up crumbly, while the trapped air bubbles help the biscuit rise and lighten in the oven.
“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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