Can you make biscuits from scratch?

[above_all]

Asked my wife to text me her grandma's biscuit recipe. Here's what she sent.

"Well, it's not really a recipe. She kept flour in a bowl all the time. You get Crisco the size of an egg and buttermilk. Put it in the bowl of flour. Using your hands, you mix the Crisco and the buttermilk, pulling a little bit of flour from the edges until you form a sticky blob of dough. Put it on a floured surface and pinch off a small piece, roll it in your hands to make a small ball and put it on a pan. Then pat it flat with the back of your fingers.

If you want a video, there is a lady I follow that makes them almost exactly like Grandmama did, except she rolls them out and cuts them."

Here's that lady's video. My wife has a video she took of her grandma, but it's VHS.

 

[Miatadude]

Yes, my wife taught me,

 

[Stampede]

There's tons of recipes out there but it's pretty basic. AP flour, baking powder, salt, frozen butter, and milk or buttermilk. Shred the frozen butter using a cheese grater is one great trick. The other is not overworking the dough. Work the ingredients together gently. I've used Southern Biscuit biscuit mix quite a bit. It has little pieces of lard already incorporated. Just add milk of buttermilk. I couldn't find a decent biscuit cutter to make big cathead biscuits. I bought a stainless steel rice bowl from one of the asian markets. It's the right size to make big biscuits and has nice sharp edges so it cuts clean. I always had the biscuit mix at hunt camp. I got to where I didn't even measure the milk. I could eyeball it and get it right. We didn't have an oven and we mastered cooking biscuits on the grill. These biscuits were perfect with a couple of heaping scoops of sausage gravy.

It's easier to me to use self rising flour and skip the baking powder & salt.

 

[Stampede]

Alton Brown's grandmother uses Self Rising flour to make her biscuits.

 

[thevalueman]

It's easier to me to use self rising flour and skip the baking powder.

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we need to get away from that "vegetable shorting" and get back to tallow or lard!!!

 

[trw2094]

Here is the latest batch I made - I'm getting better at it. They taste great, but aren't the prettiest.

I just go by the recipe on the White Lily flour package and bake them at 475.

What is your recipe, or secret, to great homemade biscuits??

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I got some homemade cane syrup to go with them !!!

 

[basstracker89]

I got some homemade cane syrup to go with them !!!

 

[Chipshot]

I learned to make biscuits before I left home at about age 20. I don’t have measurements as I just look at the ingredients and put it together. White lily flour, a little crisco and some buttermilk. Mix t up well and knead it. There is a little art to learning to pinch off the dough and rolling it out. Not bragging but mine are damn good…lol. Keep trying until you get it right. You have to have a good seasoned pan to get the biscuits just right. My mother gave me one of hers and I inherited my grandmothers bread tray. I bake at about 425 as you don’t want to make the heat too high or it makes the biscuits too hard,

 

[Chipshot]

My wife can do it. I'll get the recipe from her later. She learned it from her grandmother who was born in 1900. I remember watching her grandma making the dough, pinching off a certain amount and then rolling it into a ball between the fingers (palms) of both hands. Then she'd put the ball of dough in a baking pan and flatten it gently with the back of her fingers. It was like watching an artist or surgeon work. They floated off the plate and into your mouth.

Yeah that pinch part is an art. You can’t use a cookie cutter that’s unAmerican…lol. Your wife does it the same way I do. You have to have an old seasoned pan to get them “ old fashioned”.

 

[Chipshot]

My wife calls them womp biscuits, cause you have to womp them on the counter to open the tube.

Now that’s funny I don’t care who you are.