Soda Biscuit
1 quart of flour. 1 heaping teaspoonful of cream of tartar, the same of soda, and the same of salt. Sift these together, then rub in a table spoonful of lard and make up the dough with milk and water.--Mrs. E. B.
A pre-baking-powder biscuit: the cream of tartar and soda are the baking powder, mixed fresh in the bowl. The recipe gives no oven heat and no baking time, both of which matter more than anything else here.
- Mix and bake at onceCream of tartar reacts with soda the moment liquid hits the bowl, and unlike modern double-acting powder it gets no second lift in the oven. Have the pan and the oven ready before the milk goes in, and get the biscuits baking within a few minutes of mixing.
- The oven the recipe assumesOven heat -- The recipe gives none. Soda biscuit of this type is generally baked hot and fast; a modern equivalent is around 450F for 10 to 12 minutes, until the tops are just colored. Baked slower and cooler, they dry out.
- A quart of flourFlour was measured by volume: a quart is about 4 cups, roughly 1 lb. Old Virginia kitchens used soft winter wheat, so a low-protein flour such as White Lily or a pastry-blend gives the tender crumb intended; all-purpose works but bakes up sturdier.
- The leavening ratioEqual heaping spoons of soda and cream of tartar leaves the soda in excess -- the standard proportion is about two parts cream of tartar to one of soda. Expect a faintly soapy, slightly yellow result unless the cream of tartar is increased.
- A tablespoon of lard is very leanHalf an ounce of fat to a pound of flour makes a plain, crusty biscuit closer to a bread roll than to the rich biscuits most cooks expect now. Rub it in until it disappears; there will be no visible flakes.
- "Made up with milk and water"No quantity is given, which is normal for the period. Add the liquid gradually to a soft dough that just holds together; something in the region of 1 1/2 cups may be needed. The recipe calls for milk and water rather than buttermilk, the cream of tartar being the acid here.
- HandlingKnead only a few turns, pat to about half an inch, and cut straight down without twisting the cutter, which seals the edge and stunts the rise.
- YieldAbout 16 to 18 biscuits from a two-inch cutter. They are best within the hour and stale quickly, as low-fat biscuits do.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by Virginia housewives, belongs to the moment when chemical leavening was displacing yeast in everyday Southern baking. Cream of tartar, a byproduct of winemaking, and bicarbonate of soda had been sold separately for decades; commercial baking powders combining the two with a starch buffer were available by the 1860s but were distrusted as adulterated, and many cooks went on measuring the acid and the alkali into the flour themselves. The habit of sifting the three dry powders together with the salt, as here, is exactly what a can of baking powder later did in the factory. Recipes of this kind are also why quick biscuit, rather than yeast bread, became the daily bread of the South: soft local winter wheat made poor loaves but excellent biscuit, and a cook with a hot oven could have bread on the table in a quarter of an hour.