Comments on: Wednesday Baking-Buttermilk Biscuits

By: Dawn

Dawn — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:58:52 +0000

Kate, I sure appreciate your recipe for biscuits as I am a coal miner’s granddaughter:) I sure am glad we use butter now instead of lard! I also remember my great grandmother and grandma using a teacup to cut the dough into biscuits, gotta use what is on hand!
Kristin, thanks for all your recipes and ideas which I try with success regularly!

By: Kate

Kate — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:31:53 +0000

For your appreciation, a “true” Southern recipe for biscuits (this is how my grandmother and mother taught me to make them–same for my friends and their mothers)

2 cups (or “scoops”) of all-purpose flour
1 “big spoon” of Crisco shortening (This is usually done with a soup spoon–some folks have a specific spoon that they know from experience yields the proper amount.)
“Enough” buttermilk (probably about half a cup? I honestly don’t know.)

Sift the flour into a bowl, and cut in the shortening until it is mealy. Start with a few tablespoons at a time and mix in buttermilk–you can use a fork at first to keep you from handling it too much–until the dough is rather wet and very “chewy.” Dust with flour, pat out the dough and cut biscuits. Our family prefers to cook the cut-out biscuits cheek-to-cheek in a cast iron skillet. You can also make drop biscuits–unadulterated gobs of biscuit dough that are nice for dinner-time because they’re more like a roll. (Drop biscuits can also have cheese or another seasoning like rosemary and garlic incorporated for a twist. That, of course, was not in the original recipe. ) You cook drop biscuits on a cookie sheet.
If you have scraps of dough left at the end, pat them into one big “elephant biscuit.” This is a special prize for children who help their grannies in the kitchen.
Bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes.

(Now, before you hit REPLY, I realize shortening is anathema nowadays, but I’d also like to share that before they were considered “fun” or “regional,” biscuits were considered to be a “humble” food that many people ate every day. Even the poorest working people, like my coal-mining ancestors, could have biscuits. They would use their own lard or other fat. It seems predictable that when grocery store food replaced homemade, and then animal fats became demonized as “bad for you,” shortening would take over. I am inspired, though, and am going to try the butter because they were right about one thing: lard = gross.)

By: julie

julie — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:02:00 +0000

do you know how to make homemade egg noodles? my husband love these cooked in tomatoe juice. His mom use to make them, but i cant seem to make them like she does.
how long do you cook them, they usually stick when i cook them.

By: Jil

Jil — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:05:17 +0000

Those look good! I have a yummy Buttermilk Bicuit recipe on my blog as well. Love me some good biscuits!

By: Amber

Amber — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:01:39 +0000

I just found flour on sale 5 lbs/$.99 at the local grocery store. I am going to stock up and give some of your recipes a try. I can’t wait!

By: Just Gai

Just Gai — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:48:18 +0000

I believe these are what we call scones – traditionally eaten with clotted cream and strawberry jam and accompanied by a pot of tea. They look lovely and light.

By: Kristen

Kristen — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:13:09 +0000

Yeah, I can’t really stomach meat at breakfast, even breakfast sausage and bacon. Gravy doesn’t seem like a breakfast food to me either, but it is popular in the south.

By: Franci

Franci — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:50:53 +0000

Sausage and gravy for *breakfast*???!! That sounds gross! Only in America…

By: Kristen

Kristen — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:25:40 +0000

Carla, I knew some Southern cook would call me on the sugar thing! The original recipe doesn’t have sugar, but I added it because I like the slight sweetness it adds.

I’m not from the south, though! lol

By: Carla

Carla — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:18:46 +0000

As a good Southern cook I don’t make either biscuits or cornbread with sugar. Here is my Buttermilk Biscuit Receipt.

2 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp salt
6 tbsp. real, unsalted butter
1 cup buttermilk, preferably Bulgarian (only it takes another tablespoon or two more than one cup)

Use your directions as per above. Once you have them on the baking pan (squished up side by side in my case) spoon about a quarter teaspoon of buttermilk onto the tops right before baking. Bake 12-15 minutes at 450º.