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Biscuits
2 cups flour 4 teaspoons Royal Baking Powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons shortening 3/4 cup milk or half milk and half water Sift together flour, baking powder and salt, add shortening and rub in very lightly; add liquid slowly; roll or pat on floured board to about one inch in thickness (handle as little as possible); cut with biscuit cutter. Bake in hot oven 15 to 20 minutes.
A plain baking-powder biscuit from a company pamphlet, written for cooks who already knew the motions. Two details need translating: the oven and the leavening.
- Oven temperature"Hot oven" in a book of this vintage is usually taken to mean roughly 400-450F. At the upper end the biscuits may well be done before the full 20 minutes; watch for a set top and browned edges.
- Baking powderFour teaspoons to two cups of flour is more than most modern recipes use, which is closer to a tablespoon. Royal was a cream-of-tartar (single-acting) powder, and period recipes generally called for more of it. About 1 tablespoon (3 teaspoons) of a current double-acting powder gives good lift.
- ShorteningIn 1900s American usage "shortening" meant lard, a lard-and-butter mixture, or the newer vegetable compounds. Butter works, and cold butter cut in as coarse flakes gives more flake than the "rub in very lightly" method with soft fat.
- The hinge: handlingThe parenthesis is the whole recipe. Mix only until the dough holds, pat rather than roll, and press the cutter straight down without twisting. Overworked dough gives tough, tight biscuits regardless of the leavening.
- One inch thickThat is thicker than many later recipes call for. Thick rounds rise tall and keep a soft interior; cut them 1/2 inch thick and they come out flatter and drier.
- LiquidThe half-milk-half-water option was probably a matter of economy rather than technique. All milk gives a softer crust and better browning. Add it slowly as directed -- flour absorbency varies, and the dough should be soft and slightly sticky, not firm.
- YieldRoughly 8 to 10 biscuits with a 2-inch cutter at the full inch of thickness. Set them close together on the pan so the sides support each other and rise higher; spaced apart they brown all over but spread more.
This is the standard American baking-powder biscuit as promoted by the manufacturer that helped make it standard. The New Royal Cook Book was one of a long line of free or near-free pamphlets issued by the Royal Baking Powder Company, which sought to establish chemical leavening in the home kitchen in place of yeast, sourdough sponges and hand-mixed saleratus-and-sour-milk. Branded baking powder reached American shops in the mid-nineteenth century, and the recipe booklet was the industry's chief teaching tool: naming the product in the ingredient list was the point of publishing at all. The biscuit was the ideal demonstration piece, being fast, cheap, made from staples, and utterly dependent on the leavening working.