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Drop Biscuits
One quart flour, a piece of butter size of an egg, a piece of lard same size, two teaspoonfuls baking powder, mix with sweet milk about as stiff as pound cake. Drop a tablespoonful at a time a short distance apart on buttered tins; Bake in a quick oven.
A plain baking-powder biscuit dropped rather than rolled and cut. The measurements are volume-by-eye in the old style, so a little judgement is needed at the mixing bowl.
- A quart of flourFlour was measured by volume in a quart cup: about 4 cups, or roughly 1 lb (450-500 g). Scoop and level rather than packing it down.
- Butter and lard "size of an egg"That is about 2 oz each, so 4 tablespoons butter and 4 tablespoons lard. Both should be cold and rubbed in until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
- Baking powderTwo teaspoons to four cups of flour is light by current standards; modern powders are generally used at about 1 to 1 1/4 teaspoons per cup, so 3 to 4 teaspoons may suit a modern kitchen better. Nineteenth-century powders varied in strength.
- Sweet milkSimply fresh unsoured milk, as distinct from the buttermilk or sour milk used with saleratus. Expect to need around 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups.
- "As stiff as pound cake"The hinge of the recipe. The dough should be a thick batter that holds its shape on the spoon and drops in a lump, not a pourable one and not a kneadable one. Stop adding milk the moment it reaches that point.
- A quick ovenRoughly 425-450F. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, until risen and browned on top; too slow an oven lets the leavening exhaust itself before the biscuits set, giving squat, dense results.
- Buttered tinsAny flat baking sheet, greased or lined with parchment. Leave about 2 inches between drops since they spread as well as rise.
- YieldA large batch from a full quart of flour; dropped by the tablespoonful as directed, expect three dozen or more. They are best eaten soon after baking.
Drop biscuits are the shortcut version of the rolled and cut biscuit that dominated American breakfast tables once chemical leavening became cheap and reliable. Commercial baking powder came into general household use in the second half of the nineteenth century, and by the last quarter of the century recipes of this kind appear alongside the older work with sour milk and saleratus, or with yeast raised overnight. Dropping the dough saves flouring the board, rolling, cutting and re-rolling scraps, which matters when bread must be on the table with the coffee. The pairing of butter with lard is common in the period: lard was a cheap everyday shortening, while a share of butter was added for flavor. "Sweet milk" appears often in books of this era because unsoured milk had to be distinguished from the sour milk and buttermilk that were equally ordinary ingredients in a house without refrigeration.