Biscuits Lab321 recipes

Biscuits Lab

Biscuits: what 321 recipes agree on

American biscuits, flaky to fluffy: fat, buttermilk and leavening per 100 g of flour.

321 recipes from 91 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical batch, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.

Recipes

321

from 91 sites

Typical flour

300 g

about 2 1/3 cups

Oven

425°F

220°C · median of 300

Bake time

15 min

most 13 to 18 min

The typical batch of biscuits

The median of all 321 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 300 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.

Typical biscuits recipe in grams, with the range most recipes use
IngredientGrams
FlourThe scale for everything else300 gabout 2 1/3 cups
FatMost recipes use 100 to 135 g120 gabout 1/2 cup
ButtermilkMost recipes use 210 to 295 g255 gabout 1 cup
LeaveningMost recipes use 13 to 18 g15 g
Sugar30% use none; the rest mostly 9 to 23 g10 gabout 2 1/3 tsp
SaltMost recipes use 3.5 to 7 g5 g

Bake425°F (220°C) for about 15 minutes.

Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, milk and other liquids 240 g.

Every recipe, ingredient by ingredient

Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.

  1. Fat

    median 40% · most 34 to 45%

    Cold butter or shortening cut into the flour melts in the oven into steam pockets, which are the flaky layers.

    0%20%40%60%80%
    Each dot is up to 7 recipes.

    range 11 to 80%

  2. Buttermilk

    median 84% · most 71 to 98%

    Buttermilk hydrates the dough and supplies the acid for baking soda. Wetter doughs rise taller and softer.

    0%50%100%150%200%
    Each dot is up to 8 recipes.

    range 31 to 157%

  3. Leavening

    median 5.1% · most 4.3 to 6%

    Biscuits rely almost entirely on baking powder and soda; that is why they carry several times a cake's share.

    0%5%10%15%
    Each dot is up to 7 recipes.

    range 1.6 to 11%

  4. Sugar

    median 3.3% · 30% use none

    Southern biscuits use little or none. Above this band the recipe is closer to a scone or a cookie.

    0%5%10%15%20%25%
    Each dot is up to 11 recipes.

    range 0 to 20% · those that use some, mostly 3 to 7.6%

  5. Salt

    median 1.6% · most 1.2 to 2.3%

    Salt is most of the flavor in a plain biscuit.

    0%2%4%6%
    Each dot is up to 9 recipes.

    range 0.3 to 4.8%

Where recipes disagree

Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.

  • Sugar. 30% of recipes use no sugar, and the rest disagree too: the middle half of them add 3 to 7.6% of the flour weight.
  • Salt. The middle half of recipes use 1.2 to 2.3% of the flour weight in salt, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 1.9 times as much as one at the 25th.

Recipes agree most on fat and buttermilk: fat 34 to 45%, buttermilk 71 to 98% for the middle half.

What the words in titles mean

English recipes whose titles use a word, against the ones that do not. What recipe writers do when they pick the word, not proof that it makes the texture.

Recipes called “easy” (24), “homemade” (22) or “flaky” (19) use about the same amounts as the rest on every ingredient measured here.

“sourdough”

10 recipes vs 309

Recipes with “sourdough” in the title: less leavening (3.5% vs 5.2%).

“sourdough” (10)the rest (309)middle half of all

  • Leaveningrecipes with sourdough in the title 3.5% vs the rest 5.2%

“cheddar bay”

15 recipes vs 304

Recipes with “cheddar bay” in the title: more fat (51% vs 40%).

“cheddar bay” (15)the rest (304)middle half of all

  • Fatrecipes with cheddar bay in the title 51% vs the rest 40%

All 3 words, and 8 that change nothing →

The most-reviewed recipes

50 biscuit recipes have 50 or more reader ratings. A rating count says how many people rated a page, which follows its traffic more than its quality. Against the other 271, medians per 100 g of flour, compared within each language:

On no ingredient do the most-reviewed recipes differ from the rest by more than chance would explain.

50+ ratings (50)the rest (271)middle half of all

  • Fatthe most-reviewed recipes 36% vs the rest 41%

  • Buttermilkthe most-reviewed recipes 87% vs the rest 84%

  • Leaveningthe most-reviewed recipes 5.3% vs the rest 5%

  • Sugarthe most-reviewed recipes 3.7% vs the rest 3.1%

  • Saltthe most-reviewed recipes 1.8% vs the rest 1.5%

Most reviewed

  1. Southern Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe · archanaskitchen.com4.9 from 13,546 ratings
  2. Homemade Biscuits · sugarspunrun.com5.0 from 5,233 ratings
  3. Indian Style Jeera Biscuit Recipe · archanaskitchen.com4.8 from 3,734 ratings
  4. Butter Swim Biscuits · 12tomatoes.com4.5 from 1,788 ratings
  5. Easy Drop Biscuits · bakerbettie.com4.5 from 849 ratings

Oven temperature and time

300 of 321 recipes state an oven temperature, and 38% of those bake at 425°F (220°C). The middle half bake at 400 to 450°F. The other 21 do not say.

  • 425°F116 recipes
  • 450°F93 recipes
  • 400°F65 recipes
  • 475°F11 recipes
  • 350°F6 recipes
  • 375°F6 recipes

320 recipes state a bake time. Taking the middle of any stated range (“55 to 65 minutes” counts as 60), the median is 15 minutes and the middle half bake 13 to 18 minutes.

Temperature and time together

The single most common pairing is 450°F for 12 to 14 minutes, with 28 of the 299 recipes that state both.

Rows: oven °F (°C in gray), every 25°F. Columns: minutes, 2 a column, from the start of each; the middle of a stated range counts. Darker: more recipes, up to 28 in one cell. Outlined: the median, 425°F for 15 minutes. 299 recipes state both. The edge rows and columns also hold the few recipes beyond them.

Recipes to start with

Closest to the typical batch

Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.

Most fat

Least fat

All 321 biscuit recipes →

Go deeper

Top sources

  • 11countryliving.com
  • 11thepioneerwoman.com
  • 11theviewfromgreatisland.com
  • 9completelydelicious.com
  • 9tasteofhome.com
  • 8foodnetwork.com
  • 8joythebaker.com
  • 8melskitchencafe.com
  • 712tomatoes.com
  • 7africanbites.com
  • 7jamiegeller.com
  • 6bakerbynature.com

In 2 languages: English 319, French 2. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 91 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.

How the numbers are made

Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.

97% of the 2,740 ingredient lines got a weight. 17% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.

A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 595 were left out: 403 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (buttermilk 182, fat 137, sugar 50, salt 27, leavening 7), 91 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, 53 with a title that names a different dish, 23 made from a boxed mix, 11 a listing page, not a recipe page, 8 too many lines without an amount, 3 with an ingredient in amounts that could not be weighed, and 3 duplicates of other pages.

Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.