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Calumet Biscuits
4 cups of sifted pastry flour. 1 level teaspoon of salt. 2 rounding tablespoons of butter or lard 1/2 cup of milk 3/4 cup of water 4 level teaspoons Calumet Baking Powder I level teaspoon of salt Sift flour once, then measure, add salt and baking powder and sift three times, rub shortening in with fork or spoon, add milk and water, turn out on a well floured board and roll one inch thick, cut and bake in a quick oven about 12 to 15 minutes.
A plain baking-powder biscuit from a manufacturer's pamphlet, written for cooks who already knew the proportions. One key figure is missing from the ingredient list.
- The flour is not givenNo quantity of flour appears in the original, though the method assumes it. With 1 1/4 cups of combined liquid and 4 teaspoons of baking powder, the intended amount is probably somewhere around 3 1/2 to 4 cups; treat that as a guess and add the last of it gradually until the dough is soft but rollable.
- "Rounding tablespoons"A rounding spoonful was reckoned variously at one and a half to two level ones, so the two together come to somewhere between 3 and 4 level tablespoons of fat. Either way it is a lean biscuit by current standards, closer to a scone than to a rich Southern buttermilk biscuit.
- A quick oven425-450F. Biscuits depend on fast heat to set the crust while the leavening is still working; a slack oven gives pale, heavy results.
- The baking powderCalumet was double-acting, releasing gas both on mixing and again in the oven, which is why 4 teaspoons across roughly 4 cups of flour is not excessive. Any modern double-acting powder behaves the same way. If you have single-acting powder, work faster and get the pans in immediately.
- Sifting three timesPeriod flour was less uniform and this was the way to distribute leavening evenly. With modern flour, one sift or a thorough whisking of flour, salt and baking powder is sufficient.
- Milk and water togetherDiluting the milk was very likely an economy measure, and it does no harm to the crumb. Whole milk alone works and browns a little better.
- One inch thickThicker than most cooks roll biscuits today, and deliberate: it gives a tall biscuit with a soft, steamy middle. Cut straight down without twisting the cutter so the sides can rise.
- YieldAbout 16 to 18 biscuits from a 2-inch cutter, depending on how much flour the dough takes.
Reliable Recipes was published by the Calumet Baking Powder Company of Chicago, an advertising cookbook of the early twentieth century, given away or sold for a few cents so that every recipe in it could specify the brand by name. Calumet built its business on double-acting powder, which released some of its gas when wet and the rest under oven heat, and the company's booklets pushed hard on the claim that it was both cheaper and more reliable than the single-acting cream-of-tartar powders that preceded it. The name is generally traced to the Calumet region on the Illinois-Indiana border, itself from the French word for the ceremonial pipe.