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Dessert

Buttermilk Biscuits

A quick oven-baked biscuit made with flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, buttermilk, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Buttermilk Biscuits

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Mix and shape

  1. Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.

  3. Add the buttermilk and stir until the mixture is soft.

  4. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead gently.

  5. Roll out the dough to about ½ inch thick and cut into biscuits.

Bake

  1. Place the biscuits on a baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden.

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.

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 + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Cream + buttermilktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together674 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cream + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Flour + coffeetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,141 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the biscuits their structure.
Cream of tartar
Acts with baking soda to release carbon dioxide, which makes the biscuits rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the dough to produce gas for lift and a light crumb.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and acidity, helping the dough come together and the biscuits stay tender.

The step that matters

Handle the dough gently. Stirring and kneading develop gluten, so overworking the dough makes biscuits tough. Mix only until the dough just holds together and knead lightly.

“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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