include it : When you think of light , fluffy biscuit , you probably think of southerly food . And we get it . biscuit just copulate naturally with traditional Southern fare likefried chicken , cooky and gravy , and homemade jam .
But biscuit like those we eat today in the U.S. are fairly advanced culinary innovation . Throughout much of account , biscuits were n’t at the sum of moony breakfast or wimp dinner — they were operose , thin , durable , dry and intend for survival .
The word biscuit come from the Latin Christian Bible " panis biscoctus , " which means " twice baked " — and so it ’s no coincidence that a cookie is like to biscotti , the cookie that really are doubly broil . Soldiers in ancient Rome received " grueling biscuits " — they had no leaven agent or fat so they lasted a long time — in their ration . In fact , hard cookie of some character were the repast ready to corrode ( MREs ) of military personnel for centuries , and have been known by the names " hardtack , " " ship ’s cooky , " " sea cookie " and " original loot . "
Fast forward to the antebellum South . Biscuits were still hard and flat , and typically were only eaten only in wealthy home . Most citizenry living in the South at the meter ate cornbread instead . That ’s because most mills in the South were great at grinding corn whisky but not at processingwheat . So only the racy could afford flour , which often had to be shipped in from northern states .
Beaten biscuits , which could be considered the precursor to the New southerly biscuit , were only a little near than ship biscuit . They included fat like butter or lard , but still no leavening agent , so beaten biscuits remained bland and only slimly lighter because the dough required 15 minute of arc of massage or thrashing .
It was n’t until several 19th - century innovations came along that we got what ’s now recognise as a Southern biscuit . First , skilful flour mill — most of them in the Midwestern U.S. — and increased wheat berry output drop the price of flour enough that poor Southerners could also afford to purchase flour . And , the maturation of chemical substance leaven agents , such as pearl ash ( potassium carbonate ) , K bicarbonate , and sodium bicarbonate — what we now callbaking soda — helped biscuit get through new heights , without yeast or exhaust eggs .
Basic Southern Biscuits Recipe
A few thing are of import in biscuit baking . Keep your butter stale . Do n’t get it too diffuse while you ’re working it into the flour . You want the butter to melt when the biscuits are cooking in the oven , because melting butter produce steam that will help the biscuits rise .
Also , to make the most of the leavening power of baking soda and bake pulverisation , broil the biscuit as shortly as you mix the slopped and dry component together . Baking soda starts to work on as soon as it ’s moist , and those biscuits will lose some tallness if you let the loot sit down . Finally , use a biscuit cutter , cookie carver or a sharp knife to cut the biscuit dough . Do n’t use a Methedrine . And if you habituate a tender , do n’t squirm it . dainty clean edges avail the dough rise .
Ingredients
Preparation
1 . wake the oven to 450 degree Fahrenheit . Line a baking sheet ( with no rims ) with parchment newspaper publisher .
2 . In a large bowl , combine the flour , baking powder , common salt and bake soda with a whisk broom . ( If you are using the black pepper or thyme , add up them here . )
3 . throw away the butter block into the flour and toss them in the flour . Use your fingertips to rapidly rub the butter into the flour , until the butter pieces are all flat and some are the sizing of rice . have some bombastic pieces is fine . Put the bowl in the freezer for 15 minutes to chill the butter .
4 . Remove the bowl from the freezer . Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the milk in all at once . Combine with a fork until a gelt form .
5 . rick the dough out onto a softly flour Earth’s surface and gently pat it into a second power . close down the dough in half onto itself , and pat it out again . Repeat until all the flour is incorporate into the dough . Pat out the dough one last time , to about 1/2 - inch thick . employ a 2 - inch cookie stonecutter to cut the biscuit into lame or rounds . If you have cabbage scraps , you may gently pat them together and issue more cooky . ( Do n’t do this more than once ; the biscuits will be tough . )
6 . pose the track biscuits onto the lined baking sheet . Place them close together for biscuits that uprise high and have diffused sides . For biscuits with crispy edge , localise them an inch or more apart .
7 . Bake the biscuit for 15 minutes or until they are fortunate brown .
Recipe courtesy Shaun Chavis
