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Dessert

Geaham Biscuits

A simple biscuit made with Graham flour, wheat flour, butter, egg, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Geaham Biscuits

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°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.

Prepare

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

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine the Graham flour, wheat flour, sugar, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.

  2. Add the butter and mix until crumbly.

  3. Beat the egg and add it to the mixture.

  4. Gradually add milk until a soft dough forms.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes.

  2. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 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

Graham flour
Provides the coarse, nutty body and texture that defines graham biscuits.
Wheat flour
Adds structure and gluten so the dough holds its shape when rolled and cut.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the biscuits tender and crumbly rather than tough.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds richness to help hold the biscuits together.
Cream of tartar
Acidic ingredient that reacts with baking soda to produce gas for rising.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to lift the biscuits and aid browning.

The step that matters

Add the milk gradually. Flour absorbs liquid at different rates and overworking wet dough develops gluten, making biscuits tough. Adding milk a little at a time lets you stop once the dough is soft and just holds together.

“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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