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Dessert

Raised Biscuit

A yeast-leavened biscuit made with flour, water or milk, salt, lard or butter, yeast, soda, and baked until light brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Raised Biscuit

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Raised Biscuit

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Sift the flour into a mixing pan and make a hole in the center.

  2. Pour in the warm water or milk, salt, and melted lard or butter.

  3. Stir in a little flour, then add the yeast and mix until you can handle it.

  4. Let the mixture rise overnight.

Shape and rise

  1. In the morning, add soda and more flour to form a soft dough.

  2. Mold the dough for 15 to 20 minutes, then let it rise again until light.

  3. Roll out to ½ inch thick and cut with a biscuit cutter or form into balls.

  4. Cover and let rise in a warm place.

Bake

  1. Rub warm butter or lard on the sides of the biscuits before baking to prevent sticking.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F/175°C) until light 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. Milk + buttertop 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

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the biscuits their structure.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and gives it a light texture.
Warm water or milk
Hydrates the flour so gluten can develop into a workable dough.
Melted lard or butter
Coats flour strands to tenderize the crumb and adds richness.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise again until light. Yeast needs warmth and time to produce enough gas to lighten the dough. Underproofed biscuits stay dense, while overproofed dough can collapse and turn coarse.

“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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