Why Most of America Is Terrible at Making Biscuits (The reason the South can bake them)

getpocket.com/The Atlantic ^ | Amanda Mull

[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.

[lastchance]

The biggest mistake people make when making biscuits is they just try to be too involved. Biscuits take a light hand. Yeah the lower the protein content of the flour the better. If you can’t get a soft Winter wheat flour you can sub 1 tablespoon of cornstarch for 1 tablespoon of flour per each cup of flour. Then sift a few times to aerate the flour. I use self rising flour plus some added baking powder. Some more tips.

1. Use cold butter from the freezer and grate it into the dry ingredients. The exception to this is if you really want to keep the gluten development down you can mix in about a tablespoo2 teaspoons of softened butter to the dry ingredients (for a recipe using 2 cups flour) before adding the cold butter. (but this is not necessary)

2. Keep a light hand. Put the food processor up. You need to get a feel for how biscuit dough is supposed to feel. I use a scissoring motion with my fingers to mix in the cold butter. You don’t have to mix till it looks like coarse crumbs. If a portion hold together when you press it in your hand it is mixed enough. Then add your liquid and mix just till wet and dry are combined. I use a butter knife.

3. Don’t worry if your dough looks wet. Leave it be for a few minutes and it should hydrate. If not just put down extra flour(AP flour) when rolling or patting it out. “Touch of Grace” biscuits by Shirley Corriher have a very wet dough but boy are they good. Adding more flour to the mixed dough will give you a tougher biscuit. If the dough is too dry it is o.k. to add more milk or buttermilk or yogurt. No more than a tablespoon at a time.

3. Biscuits do very well baked in a cast iron pan.

[Jemian]

You ain’t from around here, are you? Bless your heart, I would rather die than use that junk. White Lily is my favorite, but Gold Medal is okay, too, and is what others in my family prefer.

[Do_Tar]

> I think maybe Beaujangles does something to make the surface crispy.

Brush the tops with melted butter before baking.
Don’t let the folks at Beaujangles know I told you. /grin

[SuperLuminal]

Hmmm... Seems to me that I remember (barely) about 65-years ago when a couple of buddies & I (on our first liberty back in the states) were in a bar somewhere south of Pendleton (near San Diego) and a huge brawl erupted when we complemented a waitress on her biscuits and asked her to demonstrate their fluffiness...

It probably wasn’t the compliment so much that started the trouble... It was when Sarg told her that he’d like to nibble on her biscuits if they had strawberry jam on them... That’s when things really got exciting...

[miss marmelstein]

Just use the White Lily recipe. It’s flour, cold butter and milk or buttermilk. Mix it, roll it out and cut them out. Put them in a seasoned cast iron skillet and stick it in a hot oven for about 15 minutes or so.

[heartwood]

Country ham is saltier, dryer and much stronger tasting. Aged longer, and more of the water drawn out by the salt.

A little would flavor a big pot of greens or beans or soup.

If you are sensitive to tyramines, found in aged cheeses, meats, smoked fish, red wine, you will have to forgo country ham

[Nothingburger]

I used to love Biscuitville when in was living in North Carolina and Virginia.

I even interviewed Biscuitville’s founder, old Mr. Jenkins, for one of the papers where I was business editor.

That’s what I miss about the newspaper business. The money was bad and the hours demanding. But you got to talk to a lot of interesting people about a lot of interesting things — even if it was only good ol’ Southern biscuits.

[McGavin999]

I think it’s genetic. I spent a lot of time in Baton Rouge and in Mobile and everyone tried to teach me. I used the same ingredients and stood right next to them while we made them. Theirs would float off the plate, mine were hockey pucks. I swear, it’s a southern woman gene.

[JBW1949]

Oh man!!!!! It’s hard to beat a pot full of green beans, country ham, and potatoes....

[daniel1212]

Ten years later, that hope has not come to fruition. J.M. Smucker did not return a request for comment, but the product-finder on the White Lily website turned up no retailers north of Richmond, Virginia.... You can order the flour for delivery on Amazon, but it’ll cost you anywhere from $10 to $15 for a bag, many times the in-store retail price of around $2.50.

Googling White Lily flour walmart brings this,

White Lily Self-Rising Flour, 5Lb Average rating:4. 9out of5stars, based on39reviews Walmart # 576421600 $2.78$2.78 Out of stock

One of Walmart's most common product is "Out of stock"

But at about a $2.00 a pound they have 8 PACKS : White Lily Self Rising Flour, 5-lb bag Average rating:2.7out of5stars, based on3reviews3 reviews WHITE LILY $81.81$81.81

There there is,

White Lily Flour, Baking, Light, All-Purpose, Pre-Sifted - 5 lb 22 product reviews Wheat · All Purpose · Enriched · Bleached · Kosher It has been using the highest quality ingredients since 1883. It is milled from 100% Soft Winter Wheat. Soft Winter Wheat has a low protein content making it ideal for delicate ...more » $3.79 +$0.24 tax. + shipping$10 minimum orderArrives Feb 14 – 18 Instacart

[Deaf Smith]

Can you make Texas Pizza bread?

Thought when growing up that it was a copy of a New York thing.

Nope, it is a Texas invention.

Requires lots of meat & cheese on French bread.

[StAntKnee]

If you’re hankering for biscuits, i recommend Tom Douglas’s “Serious Biscuits.” They’re delish with even “Yankee flour.” I just ordered some White Lilly” off Amazon to try the recipe with this discovery. Bone Appetite.

[boxlunch]

I enjoyed hearing your story. I think we all miss those simpler times. Yours sounds like it was very special.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Thank you! I just ordered the White Lily flour.

[MV=PY]

ping

[LibWhacker]

Flour, Baah! Knead that dough ‘til your hands cramp. Then throw it in the paint mixer for 5 or 10 minutes for good measure. All you need to know.

[moovova]

I’m a guy and I got my mother to teach me to make biscuits. I don’t make’em as well as she did, but they’re still great. Wonderful with anything involving butter, gravy or jam. Been known to slice them open, put a slab of cheddar on and toast the halves.

Also, got my mother-in-law to teach me how she made her cornbread. I know I’ve done it right when I pull the cast iron pan out of the oven, flip the pan over on a plate...and that large round hot cake of cornbread plops right outta the pan into the plate. Butter’em up and eat.

[Flaming Conservative]

For SHAME! You can’t make real biscuits with bisquik! But you most certainly CAN make them with any kind of flour, self-rising or not. (Of course if using all purpose flour, instead of self-rising, you have to add your own baking powder/baking soda and salt).

[lastchance]

Now that’s just mean. That would bring out biscuits that would make Baby Jesus cry.

[Flaming Conservative]

I’m told if you switch the milk with sprite or seven-up, your biscuits will be very high and very fluffy. Never tried it; just sounds too weird to me. I suppose you could also use carbonated water and powdered milk. THAT, I might try.