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Dessert

Soda Biscuits

Soda biscuits are made from flour, buttermilk, baking soda, lard, and salt, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Soda Biscuits

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 ↓

Soda 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.

Prepare the dough

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

  2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt, and lard until crumbly.

  3. In a separate bowl, stir the baking soda into the buttermilk.

  4. Combine the buttermilk mixture with the flour mixture and knead thoroughly.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into biscuits and place them on a baking sheet.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown.

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. 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the biscuits as gluten develops when kneaded.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and acidity that react with the baking soda to lift the dough.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce carbon dioxide, causing the biscuits to rise.
Lard
Adds fat that keeps the dough tender and helps it flake.

The step that matters

Knead thoroughly. Kneading develops gluten for structure, but overworking makes biscuits tough. Combine until just cohesive, and do not overdevelop the dough. Baking soda must meet the buttermilk promptly so its rising gas is not lost.

“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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