Skip to main content
Dessert

Maryland Biscuit

A simple biscuit made from flour, lard, and salt, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, mix flour, lard, and salt to form a stiff dough.

  2. Beat the dough with a rolling pin until soft and blistering.

Shape and bake

  1. Cut out biscuits and press your knuckles into each one.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven 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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the dough as its proteins and starches set in the oven.
Lard
Fat that coats flour particles, tenderizing the biscuit and creating flaky layers as it melts.

The step that matters

Beat the dough with a rolling pin until soft and blistering. Beating the dough folds and layers it, developing structure and air pockets that help the biscuits rise. Stop once the dough is soft and blistered, since overworking can make it 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.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes