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Biscuit. Shakspere.

A simple baking powder biscuit made with flour, lard, and sweet milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Biscuit. Shakspere.

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

  1. Measure the flour before sifting and place it in a bowl.

  2. Add the salt and stir well, then add the baking powder and sift again.

  3. Rub the lard into the flour using the back of a spoon until well mixed.

  4. Add enough sweet milk to moisten the dough without making it sticky.

  5. Mold the dough briefly, sprinkling flour on the board as needed.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough out to 1 inch thick and cut into rounds with a small cutter.

  2. Place the biscuits on an ungreased baking tin.

  3. Bake for 30 minutes in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C).

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. Butter + milktop 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the structure that holds the biscuit's shape as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven, making the biscuits rise and become light.
Lard
Coats flour particles so the biscuits bake up tender and flaky.
Sweet milk
Moistens the flour so the ingredients bind into a workable dough.

The step that matters

Adding the milk. Too much liquid makes the dough sticky and tough, while too little leaves it crumbly and dry. Add just enough milk to moisten the dough, then handle it briefly, since overworking develops gluten and toughens the 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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