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Entire Wheat Biscuits

A simple biscuit made with whole wheat and all-purpose flour, baking powder, butter, milk, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Entire Wheat 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.

Prepare

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

  2. In a bowl, mix whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt.

Make the dough

  1. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

  2. Stir in the milk until just combined.

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

  4. Roll out to ½ inch thick and cut into biscuits.

Bake

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

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. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

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

Flour and butter 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

Whole wheat flour
Adds structure and a nutty, hearty flavour and texture.
All-purpose flour
Provides gluten for structure, keeping the biscuits tender yet sturdy.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the biscuits rise.
Butter
Stays in pieces as the dough is cut, creating flaky layers and tenderness.
Milk
Hydrates the flour to form the dough and adds richness and browning.

The step that matters

Cut in the butter until coarse crumbs form. Butter should stay in small cold pieces. As it melts in the oven it leaves pockets of steam that lift the dough into flaky layers. Overworking the mixture melts or blends the butter, producing dense biscuits.

“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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