Home › Breads, Rolls, Muffins, Etc. › Biscuits (C milk or half milk and half)
Biscuits (C milk or half milk and half)
¾ C milk or half milk and half water 4 t Royal baking powder 12 t salt 2 C flour 2 T shortening Sift together flour, baking powder and salt, add shortening and rub in very lightly; add liquid slowly; roll or pat out with hands on floured board to about one inch in thickness (handle as little as possible); cut with biscuit cutter. Bake in hot oven 15 or 20 minutes. ½ C flour Mrs. F. J. Wright.
A plain baking-powder biscuit of the kind that appeared in every church cookbook of the era. The proportions work out to roughly 2 cups flour, 2 tablespoons shortening, and about three-quarters of a cup of liquid.
- The fractions"34 C milk" is three-quarters of a cup and "12 t salt" is half a teaspoon; the numerals have lost their fraction bars. Add the liquid slowly, as the recipe says, and stop once the dough comes together.
- Hot ovenThe recipe gives no number; for biscuits of this period "hot oven" is usually taken to mean somewhere around 425-450F. Fifteen to twenty minutes is generous at that heat -- check at twelve.
- Baking powderFour teaspoons for two cups of flour is generous by modern standards. Modern double-acting powder is stronger; two to three teaspoons gives comparable lift without the metallic aftertaste that too much powder leaves.
- ShorteningAt the time this meant lard or a vegetable compound. Butter works and tastes better, but keep it cold and cut it in only to the size of small peas.
- One inch thickThat is thicker than most modern recipes call for, and it is correct here -- tall biscuits with soft sides. Cut straight down without twisting the cutter.
- Handle as little as possibleThis is the hinge of the recipe. The dough should look shaggy and slightly underworked when you stop; kneading develops gluten and gives you a bread roll instead of a biscuit.
- YieldAbout ten to twelve biscuits from a two-inch cutter. Best within an hour of baking.
Chemical leavening turned biscuits from an all-morning job into a fifteen-minute one, and community cookbooks like this one document how completely the change took hold. The brand name in the ingredient list is worth noticing: Royal was among the most heavily advertised baking powders in America at the turn of the century, and its recipe leaflets and can labels helped standardize proportions in home kitchens, to the point that contributors sometimes wrote the trade name into their recipes as though it were a distinct ingredient.