Q: A friend bought a bag of self-rising flour to make beer bread. The only other recipe on the bag is for rolls. What else can she do with it?

Self-rising flour is all-purpose flour with baking powder and a little salt added. Biscuits are probably the most common thing to make with it. Many Southern cooks keep a bag on hand just for that.

There are plenty of other ways to use it, though.

While it won’t work in most yeast breads, which don’t use chemical leaveners, you can use it in quick-bread recipes, including muffins.

Just skip the baking soda and salt called for in the recipe. You also can use it to make fluffy pancakes.

One drawback to substituting self-rising flour for all-purpose is that different millers may use different amounts of baking soda and salt.

In general, though, a cup of self-rising flour has about 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Email questions about food and cooking to Kathleen Purvis at kpurvis@charlotteobserver.com.