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Soda Biscuits
M.
To each quart of flour add one tablespoon of shortening, one-half teaspoon of salt, and three and a-half heaping teaspoons of Cook's Friend baking powder; mix baking powder thoroughly through the flour, then add other ingredients. Do not knead, and bake quick. To use cream tartar and soda, take the same proportions without the baking powder, using instead two heaping teaspoons cream tartar and one of soda. If good they will bake in five minutes.
A bare-bones baking powder biscuit from the era when brand-name chemical leavens were still novel enough to name in print. The recipe assumes you know to add liquid; it never says so.
- The missing ingredientNo liquid is listed, but these cannot be mixed without it. A quart of flour (roughly 4 cups, or about 1 lb 2 oz) takes something in the region of 1 1/2 cups of milk or buttermilk to make a soft dough.
- Cook's FriendA baking powder brand of the period, made in Canada. Substitute the same volume of any modern double-acting baking powder, though 3 1/2 heaping teaspoons per quart is generous by today's standard of about 1 teaspoon per cup of flour; 4 level teaspoons is closer to modern practice.
- Cream of tartar and sodaThe alternative given is the older single-acting method: 2 heaping teaspoons cream of tartar to 1 of soda. This reacts the moment it wets, so the dough must go into the oven immediately. If using this route, buttermilk is unnecessary; sweet milk is correct.
- "Bake quick"Period sources put a quick oven somewhere in the 400-475F range. The high heat drives steam and sets the crust before the leavening exhausts itself.
- Five minutesFive minutes is optimistic for anything thicker than a quarter inch. Cut them 1/2 inch thick and expect 10-12 minutes at 450F; the five-minute figure reads more like a boast about the leavening than a literal timing.
- Do not kneadThe one instruction that matters. Mix only until the dough holds together, pat it out by hand, and cut. Working it develops gluten and turns a tender biscuit into a tough one.
- ShorteningOne tablespoon per quart of flour is very lean by modern standards. Lard or butter both work; rub it into the flour before the liquid goes in.
- YieldA quart of flour makes roughly 18-24 two-inch biscuits.
Chemical leavening reshaped North American baking in the second half of the nineteenth century, and this recipe catches the transition mid-stride: it gives the newer packaged baking powder first and the older cream of tartar and soda combination as a fallback, on the assumption that a reader might have either in the house. Cook's Friend was a widely advertised Canadian baking powder. Chemical leavens were sold loose or in tins, lost strength on the shelf, and were a frequent subject of adulteration complaints, which may be why a quick rise served as a rough measure of whether the powder was still good.