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Raised Biscuit

A soft, yeasted biscuit made with flour, water or milk, salt, lard or butter, yeast, baking soda, and baked until light brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Raised Biscuit

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Raised Biscuit

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and make a hole in the center.

  2. Pour in the warm water or milk, salt, and melted lard or butter.

  3. Stir in a little flour, then add the yeast and mix until combined.

  4. Let the mixture rise overnight.

Shape and rise

  1. In the morning, add baking soda and enough flour to form a soft dough.

  2. Knead the dough for 15 to 20 minutes.

  3. Let it rise until light again.

  4. Roll out the dough to about ½ inch thick and cut with a biscuit cutter or form into small balls.

  5. Cover and let rise in a warm place.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until light brown.

  2. Rub warm butter or lard on the sides of the biscuits before placing them on the baking sheet to prevent sticking.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough and gives the biscuits their body.
Yeast
Produces gas during the overnight and final rises, making the biscuits light and airy.
Lard or butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a rich flavor.
Warm water or milk
Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and activates the yeast.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidic components in the dough to add lift and help browning.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise fully. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce gas. Under-proofed dough bakes dense, while over-proofed dough can collapse or lose structure, so the dough should look light before shaping and baking.

“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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