For The Perfect Biscuits Every Time, Follow Michael Ruhlman's 3-2-1 Rule

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A flaky, freshly-baked biscuit with gently yielding layers truly is a thing of beauty. But achieving consistently light and tender results can be tricky. Prolific cookbook author Michael Ruhlman has come to the rescue with an exceedingly simple and rather foolproof cheat code in the form of his 3-2-1 rule. It all boils down to ratios: No matter the overall recipe quantity, you should always use 3 parts flour to 2 parts liquid and 1 part fat for biscuits you'll want to sink your teeth into.

Ruhlman literally wrote the book on this formula, along with other "magic" cooking combos in "Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking." This handy tome helps home cooks easily remember foundational recipes for everything from biscuits to cookie dough to vinaigrette. Along with baking powder and salt, consider yourself armed for biscuit success with flour, milk, butter, and this trusty formula.

Beyond the 3-2-1 ratio, Michael Ruhlman also emphasizes the importance of rolling out the dough properly for a superior biscuit texture. He favors evenly incorporating the bits of butter by creating a rectangle of dough, folding in the edges, rotating 90 degrees, and rolling again to create layers. This process gives the butter (chilled is always best for biscuits) a chance to form tiny pockets throughout the dough. These gems encourage steam to accumulate during baking, creating those sought-after pillowy layers.

You could also try using grated frozen butter, which is another biscuit hack for delivering desirably cold butter directly into your dough. If you are baking biscuits for entertaining, you can also prep the dough and refrigerate it the night before, like Ina Garten, for freshly baked biscuits in the morning with hardly any effort. And to keep the raves coming once you've aced Ruhlman's buttery, homemade golden-ratio biscuits, consider pairing them with jam — all you really need are strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice (no pectin required).