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Dessert

South Carolina Biscuit

A biscuit made with sweet cream or milk, butter or lard, sugar, salt, flour, and optional cream of tartar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

South Carolina Biscuit

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine sweet cream or milk, butter or lard, sugar, and salt.

  2. Add enough flour to form a stiff dough.

  3. If desired, add cream of tartar for extra leavening.

  4. Knead the dough well and shape it into small biscuits by hand.

Bake and store

  1. Place the biscuits on a baking sheet and bake for about 15-20 minutes until golden.

  2. Store in a dry place; they will keep for weeks and are great for traveling.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and flour 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

Butter or lard
Adds fat that keeps the biscuits tender and flaky as it coats the flour.
Sweet cream or milk
Provides liquid that hydrates the flour and gives the dough its richness.
Flour
Forms the stiff dough structure that holds the shaped biscuits together.
Cream of tartar
Acts as an acid that helps the leavening lift the biscuits, when used.

The step that matters

Knead the dough well and shape it into small biscuits by hand. Kneading develops gluten, which gives structure, but overworking a stiff dough makes biscuits tough. Handle it enough to hold together, then stop.

“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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