Name: Cream of Tartar Biscuits
Ingredients: 4 cups all-purpose flour; 2 teaspoons cream of tartar; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon lard; 2 cups ice cold water

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cream of Tartar 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

Sift the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt together four times to mix thoroughly.
Work in the butter and lard with your fingertips.
Add the ice cold water, mixing with a knife until you have a very soft dough.
Turn the dough out onto a mixing board, handling as little as possible without kneading.
Roll out the dough to three-fourths of an inch thick.

Bake

Cut out biscuits and bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for twenty 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.

Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,481 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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: Provides the structure that holds the biscuits together as they bake.
Cream of tartar: Acidic component that reacts with baking soda to produce gas for rising and a tender crumb.
Baking soda: Base that reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to release carbon dioxide, helping the biscuits rise.
Butter: Adds fat that coats flour particles, tenderizing the crumb and contributing flavor and browning.
Lard: Adds fat that shortens gluten strands, producing a tender, flaky texture.
Ice cold water: Keeps the fat solid and hydrates the flour, limiting gluten development for a tender biscuit.

The step that matters

Handling the dough as little as possible. Overmixing or kneading develops gluten, making biscuits tough. Keeping the dough soft, cold, and minimally handled preserves tenderness and keeps the solid fat pockets that create flakiness.

“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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Cream of Tartar Biscuits