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Dessert

Buttermilk Biscuit

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

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 baking soda into the buttermilk.

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

  3. Add the salt and soft lard.

  4. Mix with your fingers to form a soft dough, avoiding adding too much flour.

Shape and bake

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

  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 baking soda to produce gas, helping the biscuits rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to release carbon dioxide, leavening the dough.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the biscuits together as they bake.
Soft lard
Coats flour particles to tenderize the crumb and add flakiness.

The step that matters

Mix with your fingers to form a soft dough, avoiding adding too much flour.. Excess flour makes the dough dry and dense, and overworking develops gluten, which toughens the biscuits. Handling the dough lightly keeps the texture tender and light.

“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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