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Baking Powder Biscuits

A quick biscuit made with pastry flour, baking powder, butter or lard, and milk or water.

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 ↓

Baking Powder Biscuits

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Add the butter or lard and rub it into the flour with your fingertips.

  3. Add the milk or water and mix with a knife to form a soft dough.

  4. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead slightly.

Shape and bake

  1. Pat and roll the dough to a thickness of ½ inch.

  2. Cut out biscuits with a small cutter.

  3. Place the biscuits close together in a buttered pan and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15 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. 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

Pastry flour
Provides the structure that holds the biscuit together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, making the biscuits rise and become light.
Butter or lard
Rubbed into the flour to create tender, flaky layers and a rich texture.
Milk or water
Hydrates the flour to form a soft dough that bakes up tender.

The step that matters

Mix in the liquid just until the dough forms. Overmixing or excess kneading develops gluten, which toughens the biscuits. Mixing gently with a knife and kneading only slightly keeps them 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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