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Buttermilk Biscuits

A quick oven-baked biscuit made with flour, lard, salt, baking soda, and sour buttermilk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Buttermilk Biscuits

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Mix flour, lard, salt, and baking soda in a bowl.

  2. Add enough sour buttermilk to make a soft dough.

  3. Mould the dough into small, round balls.

  4. Place the balls closely together in a greased pan.

Bake

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

  2. 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

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. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the biscuits together as they bake.
Lard
Fat coats the flour particles, giving the biscuits a tender, flaky texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in buttermilk to release gas, helping the biscuits rise.
Sour buttermilk
Adds moisture to bind the dough and its acidity activates the baking soda.

The step that matters

Add enough sour buttermilk to make a soft dough. Mix only until the dough just holds together. Overworking develops gluten in the flour, which makes biscuits tough rather than tender.

“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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