Posted on 02/13/2020 4:27:29 PM PST by RoosterRedux
For 25 years in Georgia, I watched my mom make the same batch of six light, fluffy biscuits for breakfast almost every Sunday. Then I moved to New York, never to see a light, fluffy biscuit again. I arrived in the city in 2011, just in time for southern food to get trendy outside its region, and for three years, I bit into a series of artisanal hockey pucks, all advertised on menus as authentic southern buttermilk biscuits.
With every dense, dry, flat, scone-adjacent clump of carbohydrates, I became more distressed. I didnt even realize biscuits could be bad, given how abundant good ones were in the South. Even my mom, a reluctant-at-best cook, made them every week without batting an eyelash. The recipe she used had been on my dads side of the family for at least three generations.
The more bad biscuits I ordered in New York, the clearer it became that there was only one way out of this problem if I ever wanted to have a decent Sunday breakfast again: I had to make the biscuits for myself. I did not anticipate the hurdles of chemistry and the American food-distribution system that stood in my way.
I asked my mom to email me the recipe, and it was three ingredients (self-rising flour, shortening, and buttermilk), mashed together with a fork. Im not an accomplished baker, but I cook frequently, and this was the kind of recipe that had long been used by people without a lot of money, advanced kitchen tools, or fancy ingredients. Confident that I could pull it off, I marched right out and bought the ingredients. The result: biscuits that were just as terrible as all the other ones in New York. Not to be dramatic, but my failure destabilized my identity a little bit. What kind of southerner cant make biscuits?
In subsequent attempts, I tried everything I could think of to get it right. I worried about buttermilk quality, so I bought an expensive bottle at the farmers market, which did nothing. I tried different fat sources, including butter and lard, which made small differences in flavor and texture but still resulted in a shape and density better suited for a hockey rink than a plate. I made sure all of my ingredients were ice-cold when I started mixing, which is a good tip in general, but did not fix my problem. I kneaded the dough more or less, made it wetter or drier. The only thing left was the flour, but I figured it couldnt be thatwasnt self-rising flour the same everywhere? We had just used regular grocery-store flour back home.
Out of ideas, I did what any self-respecting Millennial would do: I Googled it, and then I called my mom, and then I placed an Amazon order.
The one ingredient I took for granted had indeed been the key all along, says Robert Dixon Phillips, a retired professor of food science at the University of Georgia.
(Excerpt) Read more at getpocket.com ...
I was wrong...white cornmeal mix.
“things like prosciutto are great”
I can’t believe it took me this long to figure out country ham is the redneck cousin of prosciutto.
Just make sure it is self rising flour.
>I LOVE the biscuits that come with KFC. Yum!!!
Yup, I buy those and cook up some Jimmy Dean Spicy sausage and freeze Sausage Biscuits to eat during the week at work
My mom-in-law made great biscuits. She said the secret was to sift the flour. She had an old timey flour sifter that was grabbed up by someone else when she passed on. We don’t have the knack.
There is a good brand of frozen biscuits that we buy - Mrs. B’s. They are fluffy and very tasty.
Grew up doing that. We also had starter milk. We bought it from the Kraft dairy company from their making cheese. Something like buttermilk.
I had an uncle once. He was asked if the biscuits were made with water. He said yeah, and I have water gravy to go over them.
I’ve been staring at a can of that in my pantry ... what’s a clabber?
You know what Bert? My dad was up in Minnesota from Texas once, for business. Getting breakfast at the airport, he asked the woman for biscuits and gravy. She said we don’t sell that.
He says I see biscuits right there, and there’s the gravy. She said yeah, but we don’t sell them together. He finally ordered 2 biscuits, and a side container of gravy.
Right there in line he poured it over the biscuits.
He said she gave him a cranky look.
Olive bread > Semolina bread > bagels > biscuits. All are great but some are better than others. Yay carbs and Dr. Atkins still died portly.
... and grits are the redneck cousin of polenta.
Clabber was the word used for soured milk. Not rotten gone bad off the shelf milk but fresh from the cow milk that had been allowed to sour. It was called for in a great many recipes in my grandmother’s day. You can substitute buttermilk or a mix of yogurt and milk.
“Clabber Girl” is a baking powder. I don’t use that brand because it has aluminum.
L8R
So maybe it’s a little clabber and saleratus that would recreate true Southern biscuits!
Thanks. I always appreciate Freeper pro tips.
Thanks for responding to my post. I left North Carolina for good in 2005 to deal with a family emergency and now I’m permanently settled in southwest Florida. My parents’ old retirement home is now my retirement home. I still feel their presence here.
So, I don’t get to enjoy Biscuitville any more. My interview with founder Maurice Jennings happened in 1991 when the chain marked its silver anniversary. Nice Southern gentleman, very easy to talk to, and typical of a class of entrepreneurs I grew to know well during my 25 years as a newspaperman.
They took pride in their accomplishments and seemed more motivated by a need to create something of value than mere money and status. A lot of my journalistic colleagues would disagree but they were a bunch of left-wing hacks and what did they know?
I did a quick search just now and noticed that Maurice Jennings just received a lifetime achievement award from the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association. The accompanying picture looks just like I remember him from 30 years ago. I would guess he’s somewhere in his 80s now, but he seems to wear his years very well indeed.
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