Southern Biscuits for the Yankee

 

Who doesn't love biscuits fresh out of the oven with butter and Mom's Sand Plum Jelly or covered with sausage gravy? You have to be crazier than a football bat if you said you don't. Out here, that's probably a sin, maybe even against the law. We love our big weekend breakfasts. Biscuits just may be the best thing the South ever did. Go to New York and see if you can find any flaky biscuits...or grits for that matter (no offense or disrespect to our Yankee friends and relatives). The Best Husband in the World didn't grow up eating biscuits in NYC. Poor thing. What a shame. It has been necessary at times for me to put the South right in his mouth so to speak and he is always grateful.

When I was a little kid, all my Great Aunts and Uncles had big farms...not a couple of acres...but hundreds of acres of farmland. During the summers, my brother and cousins would go stay for a week and haul hay. This was before the days of mega-combines rolling the hay into one ton circles and delivering them to the barns via machines and conveyors.   Boys in the Midwest would go out to the hayfields and yank those 75 pound hay bales with their gloved hands onto the bed of a big trailer, take them to the barns and stack them to the ceiling. This generally took place in 90+ degree weather. It was brutally hard work and I think they got paid maybe $5 a day plus three meals and a bed in one of the big farmhouse spare rooms. Talk about strong, fit young men. Their days started before the sun came up with a huge breakfast of biscuits and gravy, grits, fried potatoes, fresh eggs, bacon, sausage and all the milk they could drink straight from the milk cows. No one worried about calories when you sweat and worked as hard as they did.

Well these are what my Great Aunts made and they sure as heck didn't come out of a can. Easy to make. Fail-proof. Delicious. So put on your aprons and let's make the best biscuits you've ever tasted.

Southern Biscuits

This recipe will make about 6-8 good-sized biscuits--you can double it to make a big batch.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Pam a cookie sheet.
1/2 package yeast (or 1 tsp) into 1/2 c warm water. Set aside. This is not about rising, it's about flavor.
2 heaping c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 TBSP sugar
5 TBSP shortening
3 TBSP butter
1/2 c buttermilk (I didn't have any on hand but I did have cream which I added 2 TBSP lemon juice, let sit--fauxbuttermilk--you can use half and half or milk with the lemon juice as a substitute)

Mix dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Cut shortening and butter into pieces and blend into dry mixture with a fork or pastry blender until is has come together in pea-sized nuggets. Add water/yeast and stir well then add buttermilk, a bit at a time until a slightly sticky dough forms.



Tulsa's Golden Driller
Roughneck Coffee

 

Flour your counter or pastry board and plop dough onto flour. Fold over and knead a few times, lightly roll out until about 1/2-3/4" thick. Cut out with biscuit cutter or juice glass. Place on prepared cookie sheet, bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with butter, jellies, honey or sausage gravy, some scrambled eggs and a big glass of milk or OJ. Don't forget that java--especially good is Tulsa's 'Light Crude Blend' Roughneck Coffee. Just what you need before hitting the rigs and doing some drillin'.

Now get outside and haul some hay, feed the chickens, do some chores or take your dog(s) for a walk. You're good to go until supper.

Bon Biscuit y'all