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Dessert

Maryland Biscuit

A quick biscuit made with flour, salt, lard, and water, baked at 400°F.

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.

Prepare the dough

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

  2. Rub the lard into the flour and salt.

  3. Add water gradually to form a dough.

  4. Pass the dough through a meat chopper six times.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into small biscuits.

  2. Bake the biscuits for 30 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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure of the dough once combined with water.
Lard
Rubbed into the flour, it coats the flour and keeps the biscuits tender and flaky.
Water
Hydrates the flour so the dough holds together.

The step that matters

Rubbing the lard into the flour. The lard should be worked in until the mixture is evenly crumbly. Fat coating the flour particles limits gluten development, so the biscuits stay tender rather than 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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