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 didn’t 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 dad’s 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. I’m 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 can’t 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 couldn’t be that—wasn’t 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 ...
Count me as another loyal White Lilly flour Southern cook.
My Boomer steps don’t even know how to make proper gravy. And it’s easy as heck.
Can anyone help a freeper out and post a great biscuit recipe?
I LOVE the biscuits that come with KFC. Yum!!!
White Lily is “the bomb”. I had the self-rising corn meal shipped over to England when I was there.
Mother made gravy by dumping flour in the grease after she fried some kind of meat. Very simple and good.
King Arthur makes a good soft wheat flour.
I admit I was shocked how much it improved my biscuits and scones. And the bonus was that this flour is so much easier to work with.... goes together easily and requires little moisture or working. Wouldn’t bake without it
Actually you can get “pretty good biscuits” at the grocery store and just put them in the oven.
You can never get the biscuits my grandmother made from scratch. These biscuits were served with quail gravy from the quail I shot and cleaned. The quail were pan fried. The drippings left in the pan were then mixed with flour, butter, salt pepper and milk to make a most wonderful breakfast. I and my brother had eggs on the side.
I much miss the simplicity of life those many years ago. This was out on the farm. I am white as my grandad. My playmates as a child were Mexicans out on the farm. I speak Spanish. We were just kids enjoying life together. My favorite lady on the farm was “Candilotia”. She was the grandmother of my playmate. When I went to her home and it was not much, I was welcomed with love and affection. To her I was her grandson. She spoke no English and thus it was all Spanish.
Discrimination at this time was real. It was not part of my personal culture. I miss those days dearly on the farm.
I spent a year living in No Carolina in the early 70’ after living all my life in SoCal.
Tried to buy some salsa, no one had any idea what that was.
Serious withdrawal time. Now of course Mexican and Texan food is everywhere.
Make my own most times lately, even the store “fresh” is just tomato mulch.
That’s great. I remember entering baked goods in county fairs with the 4H and I don’t think the goods had to remain fresh - maybe so - but that was more years ago than I can even remember!! Or care to!!
Baking powder has to be fresh, it loses its oomph when it gets old or in self rising flour. Cream of tartar can help when the power is getting old.
LOL!
Many years ago, Red Holland hosted an outdoors show on WTVY, Dothan.
He had an extremely simple biscuit recipe. I can’t recall but there were only 2 or 3 ingredients.
I remember years ago when our military went on ships to the Far East - they praised the bakers for the fresh bread they made. It seemed to be the only thing the guys could keep down when they got seasick. My uncle who was killed on Bataan wrote about it in letters I have that he wrote to my mother. He said that guys were so sick they would just as soon have jumped overboard as put up with the seasickness! It had to be awful!
We were pretty much neighbors...I used to live on Niles Ferry Rd near Greenback...
I was an assistant football coach at Maryville College in the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s....
Their online sales will go through the roof.
Yeah, they got Salsa everywhere now...All I’ve ever eaten is that Tostitos Salsa...
And of course....biscuits for strawberry shortcake.
My college sweetheart’s mama, from Ackerman, Mississippi, would make 7 biscuits in a pie pan. It was a great honor to eat the soft one in the middle.
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