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Buttermilk Biscuit

A quick baked biscuit made with buttermilk, baking soda, butter or beef drippings, salt, and sifted flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Buttermilk 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. Stir the baking soda into the buttermilk after dissolving it in a little warm water.

  2. Add the butter or clarified beef drippings and salt.

  3. Gradually mix in sifted flour until a soft dough forms.

  4. Quickly roll out the dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Cut into small biscuits using a biscuit cutter.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

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. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Buttermilk + buttertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,674 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour 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

Buttermilk
Its acidity reacts with baking soda to produce gas, helping the biscuits rise and stay tender.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in buttermilk to release carbon dioxide, leavening the dough.
Butter or clarified beef drippings
Fat coats flour proteins and creates flaky layers and a tender crumb.
Flour
Forms the structure of the biscuit as its proteins hydrate into gluten.

The step that matters

Quickly roll out the dough. Overworking a biscuit dough develops too much gluten, making it tough, and warming the fat can flatten the rise. Handle the dough briefly and gently so the leavening and fat produce a light, flaky texture.

“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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