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Dessert

Bread, Biscuits, Etc

Yeast biscuits made with milk, butter or lard, flour, yeast, salt, and sugar, baked until golden.

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 ↓

Bread, Biscuits, Etc

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. Scald the milk.

  2. Let it cool until lukewarm.

  3. Add salt, sugar, and butter or lard. Stir until dissolved.

  4. Add flour. Beat vigorously for 5 minutes.

  5. Mix in the yeast. Cover with a towel.

  6. Let it rise in a warm place for 4 hours or until very light.

  7. Knead the dough. Add enough flour to prevent sticking.

  8. Knead continuously for 10 minutes.

  9. Return to the pan and cover.

  10. Let it rise again in a warm place for 2 hours or until doubled in size.

Shape and bake

  1. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface.

  2. Pinch off walnut-sized pieces. Knead each piece lightly into a ball.

  3. Place in a greased pan, leaving 2 inches between each. Cover.

  4. Let stand for 30 minutes.

  5. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the biscuits their structure and chewy crumb.
Yeast
Ferments sugars to produce gas, which makes the dough rise and become light.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, and its proteins help give a soft, tender crumb.
Butter or lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and enriches the flavor.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds a touch of sweetness and browning.

The step that matters

Kneading and rising the dough. Kneading builds gluten so the dough can trap the gas yeast produces. Rising until light and doubled gives the biscuits their volume; under-proofed dough bakes dense.

“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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