Skip to main content
Dessert

Buttermilk Biscuit

A quick baked biscuit made with flour, baking soda, salt, buttermilk, and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and buttermilk 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.

Mix the dough

  1. Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl.

  2. Add the lard (or lard and butter mix) and buttermilk.

  3. Mix until the dough is stiff enough to knead.

Shape and bake

  1. Transfer the dough to a well-floured surface.

  2. Roll it out with a rolling pin until well mixed.

  3. Puncture the top of each biscuit with a fork.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden 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.

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. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Flour + buttertop 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).

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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the biscuit together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce gas that makes the biscuits rise.
Buttermilk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and its liquid hydrates the flour for a tender crumb.
Lard
Fat that coats flour particles and keeps the biscuits tender and flaky.

The step that matters

Mix until the dough is stiff enough to knead. Overworking flour once liquid is added develops gluten, which makes biscuits tough. Mixing only until the dough holds together keeps them tender.

“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.

You might also like

Buttermilk PieButtermilk Pie12 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes