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Buttermilk Biscuit

A quick baked biscuit made with buttermilk, baking soda, salt, lard, and 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 very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very hot 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 Magic Soda into the buttermilk.

  2. Make a well in the flour and pour in the buttermilk mixture.

  3. Add the salt and soft lard, then mix with your fingers to form a soft dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough to 1 inch thick and cut into biscuits.

  2. Place the biscuits on a baking sheet, leaving space between them.

  3. Bake in a very hot 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).

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 the Magic Soda to produce gas, lifting the biscuits and adding tang.
Magic soda
Reacts with the acid in the buttermilk to release carbon dioxide, helping the biscuits rise.
Soft lard
Works into the flour as fat, tenderising the crumb and adding richness.
Flour
Forms the structure of the biscuits once mixed with liquid and fat.

The step that matters

Mix the dough only until it just comes together. Overworking flour develops gluten, making biscuits tough and dense. Light handling keeps the layers tender and lets the leavening lift them well.

“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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