Learning to make biscuits......

tanstaafl72555

tanstaafl72555

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My first batch were like hockey pucks.... gooey hockey pucks.

I mixed up my flour and baking powder and salt and crisco in the scripted amounts. Mixed up the milk and patted them out. Actually I rolled them. Someone said that was a no-no. Anyway, I cooked them for about 12 mins at 425. They barely browned and did not rise much.

I looked on line, and it said 1) don't overknead the dough. Just mix it up 2) pat it, don't roll it. 3) don't "twist" the cutter (a glass cup) as this seals off the dough.

Any thing else I am missing? The second batch (today) were barely edible, so that is some improvement. My mom used to make really fluffy biscuits, but she is old and can't explain to me what to do.

I plan to learn these, and then learn to make gravy. I have a bunch of term life insurance and hate the thought of just throwing that money away and not getting anything from it :) .
 
Break your crisco into dime size pieces. Use self rising flour. Have your shortening well distributed in the flour. Fluff your mix to add air into the mix. Shake your buttermilk well before adding. This.adds air too. Be percise on measuring the buttermilk. Add the buttermilk and mix until you have no dry spots in the bowl.

The dough should have body meaning that it does not move much after you move it for some reason. Kneed the dough by taking 1/3rd of the dough and adding some flour to the ball of dough. Mash this down to where it is roughly 1 inch thick. Fold over onto its self by to create a natural seam where the biscuit will open when pulled apart. Roll and cut. Take your scrap.dough and add back to the next dough ball. You won't need to add any more flour from here. Kneed roll and cut til you are out of dough. Cook at 425 until brown.

The key is how much moisture the mix has and how hot the oven is. To much moisture and the will not rise. Same with heat. Not enough and the biscuits spread out and don't rise.

Get a good thermometer and check your oven. Dont pop the door open to check the as you loose 100 degrees of temp doing that.

I make biscuits, thickburgers, and burritos for a living. Now you know part of the reason i have Grits as a screen name.

I learned to make biscuits when i was 18 from a lady at work.

If you can make biscuits you can always feed yourself.

Sent from my SM-J320V using Tapatalk
 
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There are a bunch of different recipes, all with varying amounts of the ingredients. When you make the dough, it will be somewhat wet and as you pat it out and fold it over on to itself a few times, with flour, it will dry a bit. Some suggestions:
1) use buttermilk, not milk. Buttermilk is acidic which will make baking SODA rise. Baking POWDER contains a compound to make it rise sans acid.

2) different fats melt at different temperatures. Use a combination. I like butter and lard. You won't find Crisco (hydrogenated oil) in my kitchen.

3) keep things COLD. chill the lard, keep the butter cold, keep the buttermilk very cold.

4) a food processor will work better then a cutter because it imparts less heat. Keep it cold.

5) make sure you preheat the oven. Normally biscuits go at about 450. The pre heat is necessary to rise.

6) make sure you have enough fat. It should resemble large crumble streusel.

7) use the right flour, I like White Lilly. Southern branded flours are better then northern ones. I think the climate affects the gluten content.

Kneed and handle it as little as possible. Don't roll it.
 
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Grasp the little tab at the corner of the can and carefully peel back the foil wrapping. Once the foil wrapping has been removed you'll notice a seam around the tube. Using the edge of a countertop, sharply strike the seam on the edge of the countertop and it should pop open revealing the pre-shaped dough within. If it doesn't pop open a few MF's and a couple of GD's should help.

Using a 9" x 11" baking sheet or cookie sheet arrange the biscuit shaped dough pieces onto the sheet and allow approximately 1.5" between each biscuit. Cook in a 400 degree oven for 9 to 13 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool for 2 to 3 minutes before consumption... If you burn your mouth, their too hot. Allow them to cool another minute or two or continue eating and burning, no skin off my butt...
 
Use "White Lily" self rising flour. Use lard, not crisco and real buttermilk.

It took years for me to learn the fine art of biscuit making. I grew up with canned biscuits. My Mom was not terribly gifted culinarily.
 
Miss Lily said:
Use "White Lily" self rising flour. Use lard, not crisco and real buttermilk.

It took years for me to learn the fine art of biscuit making. I grew up with canned biscuits. My Mom was not terribly gifted culinarily.
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Thank you for pointing out the basics of the art for southern biscuit making Meg.

Nicely done. :D
 
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Yup, lard and fresh buttermilk are key. I also like to fold the dough back onto itself three times or so to give em nice layers.
 
Inglis said:
Where do you get real good butter milk?
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Look for Homeland Creamery buttermilk. It's local over in Julian (6506 Bowman Dairy Rd, Julian, NC 27283). If you can't find it in Asheboro, it's an easy ride in the country but I think that Lowes Foods used to carry it.
 
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Diablos said:
Yup, lard and fresh buttermilk are key. I also like to fold the dough back onto itself three times or so to give em nice layers.
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Yup!

And brush melted butter between the layers.
 
Don said:
I see a "Biscuit off" coming...
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I'm with you Don...........this "Biscuit Off" could easily follow the nanner-puddin' w/meringue schoolin' that took place here with a clear and decisive win.

Perhaps some of our illustrious biscuit makers will post some tutorials.
 
I can't wait to have a real kitchen again. And there is a wood cook stove fer sale down in Nebraska with my name on it.
 
My grandmother used to make the best biscuits I've ever had. And she did not measure anything. She used lard or Crisco, whichever was handy, she did use buttermilk, she did roll her dough with a rolling pin. She loved her a fresh biscuit. I have seen her many times when she would want a fresh biscuit with her dinner (lunch to the uncivilized) and she would get out the fixin's and make one biscuit.
 
You would think somebody asked what kitchen knives to buy. We're worse for spending your time than we are suggesting how to spend your money.

The key to biscuits is repetition. Make some today. Take notes. If they're not good, throw them out and change something. I have eaten some mighty fine biscuits made with 2% milk and Crisco.

Make them three days a week for a year and you will be great at it.
 
Inglis said:
Where do you get real good butter milk?

Sorry I do not need any bull as I do not have a cow.
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Homeland Creamery is worth a ride up to visit. Getcha an ice cream cone while you're there. Take home some buttermilk and for god sakes try the chocolate milk. Tell em Brian Norris sent ya, they'll either smile, or tell you to get the hell out :D

Don said:
Look for Homeland Creamery buttermilk. It's local over in Julian (6506 Bowman Dairy Rd, Julian, NC 27283). If you can't find it in Asheboro, it's an easy ride in the country but I think that Lowes Foods used to carry it.
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Don the Woody Mill food lion carries Bowmans stuff also
 
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Geezer said:
My grandmother used to make the best biscuits I've ever had. And she did not measure anything. She used lard or Crisco, whichever was handy, she did use buttermilk, she did roll her dough with a rolling pin. She loved her a fresh biscuit. I have seen her many times when she would want a fresh biscuit with her dinner (lunch to the uncivilized) and she would get out the fixin's and make one biscuit.
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Sounds like my grandma, never measured anything. Kept her dough bowl under the cabinet and when she was done she would just rake out the remaining bits and put it back under the cabinet. She used to make biscuits every day and they were tall and fluffy or cotton as some called them.
 
GoWolfpack said:
You would think somebody asked what kitchen knives to buy. We're worse for spending your time than we are suggesting how to spend your money.

The key to biscuits is repetition. Make some today. Take notes. If they're not good, throw them out and change something. I have eaten some mighty fine biscuits made with 2% milk and Crisco.

Make them three days a week for a year and you will be great at it.
Click to expand...

 
On second thought - that pdf said they use pre-made dough... Ugh. Homemade biscuits with hoop cheese done the way I'm talking will make you lose your religion.
 
Miss Lily said:
Use "White Lily" self rising flour. Use lard, not crisco and real buttermilk.

It took years for me to learn the fine art of biscuit making. I grew up with canned biscuits. My Mom was not terribly gifted culinarily.
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Miss Lily, are you churning your own butter and drawing off the buttermilk or are you using a starter with raw or regular milk?
 
My grandma tells me the key is to cook the biscuits as fast as you can at the highest temp you can without burning them.
 
From October 1950 until September of 1955, my whole family on Dad's side lived in one big house like the Waltons. I was born there and raised by several moms and dads in a way. In 1945, just before the war ended, my grandfather and mother purchased the old North Spray Boarding House, after the owner had died and it had been shut down for a year or so. This biscuit thread took me back a ways, to when my grandmother got up at 4:30 and went to her "Biscuit Safe" and began to make the biscuits for that day. Everyday! We always had biscuits for breakfast with eggs, white gravy, or ham, bacon, or cheese. We had them to sop the red eye on Sundays when we had slices of ham that grandpa had smoked, and at lunch after church, around a table as big as a river barge where we ate fried chicken, from chickens my grandma raised and had killed that morning.
We, the 6 of us, had 1/2 of the upstairs. Across from us was my uncle Bob with his wife and two kids and my uncle Tommy with his wife and 3 kids. Downstairs was shared by grandfather and mother and my uncle Olin, and his wife and their 3, and in the basement was my uncle Joe, with his wife and child. During the week meals were catch as catch can, with everyone going to their separate jobs at different times, but on Sundays no one worked and we all ate together. Everyone got along, we had to, because we were family. Conflicts were rare but were ended quickly, once wind of one reached my grandfather. He'd beat us up with reason and understanding and then make us hug. Later our fathers would take a strap or switch to our rears as reminders. It was a good time to live. :)

Here's a picture of a cabinet similar to grandma's.

A biscuit cabinet.jpg
Note the buttermilk jar. Every night before bed she'd take it from the Kelvenator and put it in the holder. There was a five gallon bucket of Valleydale lard in the big cabinet and a huge mixing bowl. The drawers held stuff like cookie cutters and pie crust wheels and pancake turners and other things used for cooking that I had no idea about. Every two or three weeks a man would come with a 50lb bag of flour and a 5 gallon bucket of lard. We ate a lotta biscuits. Very very good biscuits. :)
 
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Diablos said:
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I submit that until somebody learns to make good biscuits with marginal ingredients they'll never make great ones with the best ingredients.


Practice with whole milk and crisco. It's a crime to waste lard and buttermilk on biscuits you're just going to throw away. Once you know how things should feel and look at every step in the process, move on to buttermilk and lard.
 
Miss Lily said:
Use "White Lily" self rising flour. Use lard, not crisco and real buttermilk.

It took years for me to learn the fine art of biscuit making. I grew up with canned biscuits. My Mom was not terribly gifted culinarily.
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This is how my dad taught me. We were at a dinner one time with some family and somehow the conversation got turned to flowers and what was everyone's favorite flower was... roses... tulips..etc.. My aunt asked my dad if he knew what my mother's favorite flower was. His response of "White Lily" had everyone rolling!

A trick my dad taught me when making biscuits is to periodically check the bottom of them (lift with a fork) and not wait until the top browns. When the bottom is browned nicely, turn the oven on broil to brown the tops. You have to watch it because it only takes 1-2 minutes for the top to brown. This will keep the bottoms from burning and becoming hard.
 
Hmm...we always used Martha White... it's got "Hot Rise" yanno? :)
 
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MuzzerFuzzer said:
From October 1950 until September of 1955, my whole family on Dad's side lived in one big house like the Waltons. I was born there and raised by several moms and dads in a way. In 1945, just before the war ended, my grandfather and mother purchased the old North Spray Boarding House, after the owner had died and it had been shut down for a year or so. This biscuit thread took me back a ways, to when my grandmother got up at 4:30 and went to her "Biscuit Safe" and began to make the biscuits for that day. Everyday! We always had biscuits for breakfast with eggs, white gravy, or ham, bacon, or cheese. We had them to sop the red eye on Sundays when we had slices of ham that grandpa had smoked, and at lunch after church, around a table as big as a river barge where we ate fried chicken, from chickens my grandma raised and had killed that morning.
We, the 6 of us, had 1/2 of the upstairs. Across from us was my uncle Bob with his wife and two kids and my uncle Tommy with his wife and 3 kids. Downstairs was shared by grandfather and mother and my uncle Olin, and his wife and their 3, and in the basement was my uncle Joe, with his wife and child. During the week meals were catch as catch can, with everyone going to their separate jobs at different times, but on Sundays no one worked and we all ate together. Everyone got along, we had to, because we were family. Conflicts were rare but were ended quickly, once wind of one reached my grandfather. He'd beat us up with reason and understanding and then make us hug. Later our fathers would take a strap or switch to our rears as reminders. It was a good time to live. :)

Here's a picture of a cabinet similar to grandma's.

View attachment 9438
Note the buttermilk jar. Every night before bed she'd take it from the Kelvenator and put it in the holder. There was a five gallon bucket of Valleydale lard in the big cabinet and a huge mixing bowl. The drawers held stuff like cookie cutters and pie crust wheels and pancake turners and other things used for cooking that I had no idea about. Every two or three weeks a man would come with a 50lb bag of flour and a 5 gallon bucket of lard. We ate a lotta biscuits. Very very good biscuits. :)
Click to expand...
I know where there is one of these for sale if there is interest
 
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