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Dessert

Maryland Biscuit

A simple biscuit made with flour, lard, cold water, and salt, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Maryland Biscuit

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. In a large bowl, combine flour, lard, cold water, and salt.

  2. Beat the mixture until very light.

Shape and bake

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

  2. Shape the dough into biscuits and place them on a buttered baking pan, leaving space between them.

  3. Let the biscuits rise for a short time before baking.

  4. 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.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the structure that holds the biscuits together as they bake.
Lard
Fat that coats the flour and keeps the biscuits tender and flaky.
Cold water
Provides the moisture that binds the flour and fat into a dough.

The step that matters

Beat the mixture until very light. Beating works air into the dough, which helps the biscuits rise and stay light. Stopping too early leaves the biscuits dense, while the cold water and lard help keep the dough from becoming tough.

“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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