Pan and spacing: Bake the biscuits about ½ inch apart on a dark, heavy baking sheet. The space lets the sides brown, and the dark pan helps the bottoms turn golden and crisp, which is my preference. Biscuits baked touching rise slightly higher, but their sides stay lighter and softer. If that's what you prefer, a 10 or 12-inch cast iron skillet is a great option: the biscuits fit snugly for the taller rise, and the cast iron gives the bottoms a deep golden crust. Spaced biscuits will likely bake a minute or two faster than biscuits baked touching in a skillet.

Make ahead: Mix and cut the biscuits up to 24 hours ahead, the night before to bake in the morning or the morning of to bake that night. Keep them on the parchment-lined tray, covered well, in the fridge. Move them to the well-buttered, preferably dark baking sheet right before they go in the oven. Skip the 15-minute freeze if they’ve chilled for hours. Very cold biscuits may need an extra minute in the oven.

Butter: This recipe is written for salted butter, both in the dough and for brushing. If you’re using unsalted, add about ¼ teaspoon more salt to the dough and a pinch to the brushing butter.

Smoked salmon: This recipe is calibrated for sweetened, hard smoked salmon candy, which plays the role of a brown sugar bacon. Diced hot smoked salmon or diced lox also work, but both are saltier without the sweetness to balance them, so skip the added ½ teaspoon of salt. Plain cooked salmon is only as salty as you season it, so keep the added salt.

No self-rising flour? For every 1 cup of self-rising flour, use 1 cup all-purpose flour plus 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder plus ¼ teaspoon salt. For this recipe, that’s 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon plus a scant ½ teaspoon baking powder, and a generous ½ teaspoon salt. Keep the separate ½ teaspoon of salt in the recipe as written.

Herb swap: For a more pronounced herb flavor, use 1 tablespoon fresh dill and 2 tablespoons chives in the dough, keeping the total at 3 tablespoons. I preferred the chives on their own, but dill is always a good choice.

For the meat-eaters: Swap in 3 ounces cooked, crumbled bacon for the salmon. It won’t bring the same sweet balance, so skip the added ½ teaspoon of salt in the dough. If it needs a little more after tasting the finished biscuit, sprinkle flaky salt over the top after brushing with butter. Start with about 6 ounces of raw bacon and that should cook down to around 3 ounces crumbled.