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Baking Powder Biscuit I

A biscuit made with flour, lard, butter, baking powder, milk, water, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Baking Powder Biscuit I

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. Mix dry ingredients and sift twice.

  2. Work in butter and lard with your fingertips.

  3. Gradually add the liquid, mixing with a knife to form a soft dough.

  4. Toss the dough on a floured board, pat, and roll to ½ inch thickness.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape with a biscuit cutter and place on a buttered pan.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 12 to 15 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.

  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 structure that holds the biscuit's shape as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, lifting the dough so the biscuits rise and become light.
Lard
Coats flour particles to create a tender, flaky texture.
Butter
Adds fat that creates flaky layers and rich flavor.
Milk and water
Hydrates the flour so the starches and proteins form a cohesive dough.

The step that matters

Gradually add the liquid. Adding liquid slowly and mixing lightly keeps the dough soft and prevents gluten from overdeveloping, which would make the biscuits 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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