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Maryland Biscuit

A simple biscuit made with flour, lard, salt, and cold water, baked until golden.

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

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.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, mix flour, lard, and salt.

  2. Add cold water gradually until the dough is stiff.

  3. Knead the dough on a board until pliable and it makes a popping sound.

Shape and bake

  1. Break off pieces the size of an egg and mold into round balls, about ½ inch thick.

  2. Flatten each ball with a rolling pin and poke 5 or 6 times with a fork.

  3. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and bake for 30 minutes.

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
Fat that keeps the dough tender and flaky by coating flour particles.
Cold water
Hydrates the flour to form dough; cold water keeps the fat from softening too early.

The step that matters

Knead the dough until pliable. Kneading develops gluten so the dough becomes pliable and holds its shape. Under-kneaded dough can crumble, while over-working it makes biscuits tough.

“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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