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Dessert

Maryland Biscuit

A quick biscuit made with flour, salt, lard, and cold water, baked at 400°F until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Maryland Biscuit

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt.

  2. Cut in the lard until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

  3. Gradually add the cold water and knead the dough well.

  4. Pound the dough until it blisters, at least 1 hour.

Shape and bake

  1. Mould the dough into small biscuits.

  2. Bake immediately in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) 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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the biscuits together as they bake.
Lard
Cut into the flour to create flaky layers and a tender, short texture.
Cold water
Hydrates the flour so the dough can form and develop gluten through kneading.

The step that matters

Pound the dough until it blisters. Pounding and kneading develop gluten and layering, giving the biscuits strength and a flaky rise. Cold lard must stay solid while working the dough, so the fat does not melt into the flour and make the biscuits dense.

“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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