1 quart flour.
2 heaping tablespoonfuls of lard.
2 cups sweet—if you can get it—_new_ milk.
1 teaspoonful soda.
2 teaspoonful cream-tartar.
1 saltspoonful of salt.
Rub the soda and cream-tartar into the flour, and sift all together
before they are wet; then put in the salt; next the lard, rubbed into
the prepared flour quickly and lightly; lastly, pour in the milk.
Work out the dough rapidly, kneading with as few strokes as possible,
since handling injures the biscuit. If properly prepared the dough
will have a rough surface and the biscuit be flaky. The dough should
also be _very_ soft. If the flour stiffen it too much, add more milk.
Roll out lightly, cut into cakes at least half an inch thick, and bake
in a quick oven. The biscuit made by the friend from whom I had this
receipt were marvels of lightness and sweetness. I have often thought
of them since with regretful longing, when set down to so-called
“soda-biscuit,” marbled with greenish-yellow streaks, and emitting,
when split, an odor which was in itself an eloquent dissuasive to an
educated appetite. Few cooks make really good, quick biscuit—why, I am
unable to say, unless upon the principle of “brains will tell.” I have
had more than one in my kitchen, who, admirable in almost every other
respect, were absolutely unfit to be intrusted with this simple yet
delicate manufacture. The common fault is to have too “heavy a hand”
with soda, and to “guess at” the quantities, instead of measuring them.
Eat while warm.