The Demand for Biscuits Is Met
Sausages – eat your heart out
Baking Powder Biscuits from 1953
Ingredients:
2 cups of sifted all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
½ teaspoon of salt
¼ cup of shortening**
2/3 to ¾ cup of milk
**NOTE: the recipe calls for ¼ cup shortening, but my Dad wrote in ½ cup. I suggest making one small batch both ways first, to find out which one you prefer. The additional shortening will make the biscuits flakier.
Preparation:
– Cut the shortening into sifted dry ingredients until they are coarse crumbs.
– Make a well; add the milk all at once
– Stir quickly with a fork only until the dough follows the fork around the bowl.
– Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. (Dough should be soft)
– Knead the dough gently with the heel of your hand, 10 to 12 strokes: about ½ minute This makes tall plump biscuits.
– Roll or pat biscuit dough to ½ inch thickness
– Dip biscuit cutter in flour then cut dough straight down. Do NOT twist the biscuit cutter!!
– Bake on an ungreased baking sheet in a hot oven (about 450F**) for 12 to 15 minutes
**NOTE: 450F is the temperature given in the 1953 BH&G cookbook. You might want to test this with one biscuit first.
For Buttermilk Biscuits:
– Sift ¼ teaspoon baking soda with the dry ingredients**
– Increase shortening to 1/3 cup
– Substitute buttermilk for regular milk, same amount.
**NOTE: Baking soda reacts with buttermilk to make the dough rise and gives you that wonderful flavor.
Since 5th/77th wants sausage gravy, well – here it is, from the Food Network, courtesy of Ree Drummond. Haven’t tried this myself just yet, but she gives you some leeway.
Ingredients
1 pound breakfast sausage, hot or mild
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 to 4 cups whole milk, more to taste
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper, more to taste
Biscuits, warmed, for serving (see recipes above)
Now you’ve done it, Ex. This is between you and the Gun Bunny, and my involvement was never part of the equation.
Looks damned good, though, thanks.
Oh, I have no doubt you’ll be letting us know that those biscuits are flakiest when the extra shortening is added. 🙂
Don’t try to wiggle worm waggle out of any collateral guilt here Bro. You know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you would be all over a plate full of cat heads covered with sausage gravy PLUS have the pockets of your flight suit stuffed with sausage patties inside the leftover biscuits. And yes, Ex is correct, you will be bragging on how much flakier yours are because of the extry shortening.
Just ’cause I like ’em doesn’t mean I’ll make ’em, Gun Bunny, so stand down. Baking isn’t for me- too precise and it blows the kitchen up. This gig is between you and Ex.
Besides, if there is anything flaky around here, it isn’t in Navy Blues.
Flakey? Hmmmmm? Pie Crusts! Hmmm?
Fresh Georgia Peaches are shipping out as we speak! Hmmmmmm? Lattice is not just for trellises. Hmmmmm? Thursday is on the way. Hmmmmm?
Or since we’ve got the flour and the sifter out, maybe this?
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2713957365375477&set=a.165919150179324&type=3&theater
Apple pie, 5th/77th. Apple pie made with nice, crispy Pink Ladies or Granny Smiths, nice and tart, and served up with a good-sized dollop of ice cream.
And my favorite place for that is closed until this diseased crisis completes its cycle.
Yeah baaaaaby on Apple pie…Granny Smith’s with vanilla bean ice cream. But right now, as you pointed out before, they are not in season, but peaches are. My plan was to transport at least a bushel or two out west when I vacated in June. Looks like a planned 3 year trip may not happen. My NE & SD Nieces and Sisters are bakers and cooks “par excelance” and was planning peach related deserts of all varieties, including homemade peach ice cream. Damn a bunch of Chinesecommunist Originated Virus Infecting Disease.
(Noise is Ex-PH2 falling down lauging.)
KoB and AW1Ed need to get a room….
Best TAH Comedy Team EVER..
😂🤣😅😆😉😎
Where is Ro
Let me be the FIRST, Mi’Lady to say Thank You, We Love You, and put some South in yo Mouth. Straight outa my Grandmothers and Mama’s kitchen. Y’all notice that she used the all purpose flour and baking powder v a self rising. The original 1953 model cookbook didn’t carry on about self rising flours that much because it wasn’t in widespread use. Even after it became more available, few Southern Cooks used it cause we bought flour in the 25 to 50 lb cloth bags and baking powder was kept for all sorts of things. Many of those flour sacks were turned into articles of clothing up to and including aprons, night shirts and everyday wear dresses for little girls. Buried in my artifact trunk is some of those original pieces and some of the flour sacks. Many of the sacks were quite decorative and colorful to boot. But, again, I digress. It does bear mentioning that the flour of choice was Dixie or White Lily and the shortening was Crisco.
The difference in a cat headed biscuit and a cut biscuit was the hand patting out left 2 little “cat ears” and they were the size of a cat’s head. Sausage patties or links were cooked up FIRST and some crumbles for the mixing into the gravy, while leaving the others to be put into the other biscuits for a noon time meal (dinner) that was packed into a lunch pail or a paper sack.
My Lady friend has followed the progress of this conversation since evening last. She has also seen some of the comments on the other cooking threads. She claims y’all have spoiled me. I don’t see it.. btw, while the oven is hot, we could use some cookies to go with the ice cream I have.
Maybe this has calmed me down enough to go comment on the NYT article…. Grrrrrrrrr!
Thanks again Ex-PH2! The way to a real man’s heart IS thru his taste buds and stomach.
There’s also a variation using the biscuit dough for making pecan rolls….
As I recall, my Dad did most of the real cooking, especially when baking was involved.
Sugar with condensed sweet milk (?) and a honey glaze over the top with pecan chips cut into the dough and on top? With some cinnamon sugar in there or an icing glaze(?). Pecan roll as in a sweet roll v Pecan Roll as in Stuckey’s Candy.
It’s the old classic recipe, put the chopped pecans, brown sugar and butter in the bottom of the baking pan. Roll out the dough flat, put a mixture of chopped pecans, brown sugar, and butter on the rolled-out dough, then roll it up, cut into equal sized pieces and put them into the pan on top of the layer of more pecans, brown sugar and butter.
I don’t recall if he used foil to line the pan, but it makes for an easier clean-up afterwards.
Fellow that grew up on the land we now own (bought it from him, he inherited it as a part of an original land grant from the Republic of Texas to his great-granddaddy) tells about him and his brother earning part of their family money by maintaining the cemetery about 2 miles down the road. They’d leave in the morning with a biscuit apiece in their pocket, with a hole punched in the side and butter or syrup poured into it. Work all day hoeing up the weeds in the cemetery with that and creek water for lunch.
Ex & KoB:
You both brought back wonderful childhood memories of sitting in my Grandparent’s kitchen, watching my Grandma make her homemade Biscuits, using Flour from a 25 lb Flour Bag, Buttermilk, Clabber Girl Baking Powder and Bacon Lard (sometimes Crisco) on an oilcloth tablecloth without using any measuring devices.
Mixing the ingredients with her hands. Forming and shaping those biscuits into a pan that was older than me.
Cooking them in a wood-burning stove while frying bacon in an iron skillet.
And the smell of fresh coffee made with well water and ground coffee that came in a big can, percolating on the stove.
Those wonderful fragrances in her kitchen,i.e. wood burning, fried bacon, percolated coffee, homemade biscuits. And the visual, i.e. Grandma wearing a flour-dusted full apron and Grandpa drinking his coffee from a saucer.
The sounds. Wood and Bacon popping/crackling on the stove. Coffee perking noises.
Yep. Breakfast was the best meal of the day in their home. Material wise, they did not have much, i.e. no indoor plumbling, no indoor AC or Heat.
But they did have a roof over their heads. They did have pigs and chickens they raised for food and sometimes a milking cow for their home churned butter and buttermilk.
Most of all, they loved each other…and passed that love to their grandchildren.
I miss them.
Thank You again for sharing.
Now you made me even more glad I found that old BH&G cookbook and decided it was worth keeping.
Nothin’ says lovin’ like something from the oven….
Yes, the scent of real coffee being percolated in a coffee pot on the stovetop always meant breakfast. And in the winter, on weekends, we’d get out and shovel snow and then come back in and have breakfast.
If you want a wood-burning stove, Lehman’s will take your order. It’s a real skill to cook that way.
Thank You, Ex, for sharing about Lehman’s as well as your recipe!
😊
I (we) have an old wood burning stove, inherited to my Mrs Deplorable from her g’mother.
It’s an old 1930s (1935?) model, white w/green trim enamel, outfitted with water heater & top warmer.
It currently sits in a corner of the living room, as a dishes & knick-knacks collector.
I’d like to make it fully functional, but that would take a lot of work to fortify (fireproof) a corner to put it, plus punching a hole in the wall plus stove pipe. At our age, ain’t gonna happen any time soon, if at all. Too bad.
There are companies that will do that for you, Woodman.
It isn’t cheap, but those old cast-iron and heavy steel cookstoves that burned wood are worth the effort.
TY for the rapid response.
If I thought that that lovely old stove would be put to good use, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Twenty years ago, definitely.
But at Mrs Deplorable’s age and physical condition (poor back, lower lumbar surgery this past week), I don’t think she/we’d ever cook on it.
Maybe use it as a wood burning room heater……….hmmmmmm………
Again, TY, m’lady
Any time. You might want to contact Antique Appliances in Clayton, GA, about how to find someone to restore it.
https://www.antiqueappliances.com/contact-us/
They do that all the time, but you need someone who is closer to home. And yes, an old woodburning stove will definitely warm up a room in the winter. There are also such things as parlor stoves, which were used to heat rooms in the prior centuries (18th 19th, early 20th) until central heating put an end to that.
Whatever you do, make sure it’s safe to use, first.
Similar to the memories of our grandparents, ninja.
Milk cow, homemade butter & butter milk, snapping beans on the back porch, gathering eggs from Granddaddy’s chickens (he had an egg route he ran)
And the garden produce in season – can’t be beat.
…waiting on the front steps for the ice delivery man to come with a couple of ice blocks to put in the icebox. He’d give me and my brother a chunk of ice each in the summertime.
Who on earth needs junk food when you have good stuff like plain old peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, or cookies that you made yourself in the morning?
Rubber biscuits by the Chips, 1956 on the Josie label.
Y’all are talking my language here.
I made a note in my Betty Crocker Cookbook to use more Crisco (not just any shortening – made that mistake one time, never again)
It makes the biscuits fluffier and moister. I’ve not used milk in my sausage gravy, but I may have to try that one.
Mrs. GB and I had an wood burning stove in our house when we were new parents. It heated the house better than electric space heaters, and the winters were cold enough we needed it after our first child was born. I got real handy with an axe.
My dear Daddy-in-law was very glad for his central heat, but he’d walk across the drive to sit in our living room next to that stove, as long as he didn’t have to cut the wood! He was born in 1902, I think, and grew up with that heat. Can’t beat it.
That child grew up and used that stove his his family’s first house when they were new parents.
Thank You, GB, was sharing your wonderful memories with us.
Yep, I remember snapping peas with my Siblings and Cousins on the front porch of my Grandparent’s house.
I still do that on occasions just for the memories (and yes, for the taste of fresh green beans from the garden).
Taught our kids to do that as well,i.e. snap beans.
You are right about Crisco. Homemade cakes and pie crust not only have a better texture, but also a better taste. Same with Fried Chicken.
Last, my Grandparent’s kitchen was the warmest room in their home during the winter months. They also had a small pot belly wood burning stove in another room, but we always stayed in the kitchen. Cozy and warm with all the aromas of comfort food.
Ex, trying to remember if an iceman delivered ice for their icebox (that is what we called it instead of. refrigerator. 😊
Thank You to ALL today for your wonderful posts. We are so blessed to have those wonderful memories. Better than TV reruns.
If the iceman arrived in the spring-through-fall season, it was probably the mid-1950s through 1960, depending on where people lived.
When we finally moved into town, we still had milk and eggs delivered by the milkman from the local dairy company.
We were still getting delivery into the late 60s of ice, milk, eggs, cheese, and even bread (Colonial and Meritta had major bakeries here) Borden Milk and the Heath Ice and Coal Company.
William McCaw was the gentleman that invented the cottonseed oil based Crisco. FIRST called Platene and patent issued in 1911 (imagine that, what other wonderful product came out in 1911?) He sold the patent to and worked for Proctor and Gamble. The home he built is still occupied in Macon Georgia, and the P&G Plant buildings are still there, unoccupied right now but Historic Macon is attempting to re-hab. This link has a fairly decent picture of his home and an original Crisco Can. Imma looking for the linky that gives more detail about the home. It was on the market recently. Nice crib with multiple pics.
https://www.macon.com/living/article115386188.html?fbclid=IwAR0j8X1yORqZvdS9NW9wQQOehrr3l7I3MWpcoAn942mujWvD6fkVBflhxNM
Some here;
https://www.facebook.com/pg/Macon-Georgia-Then-and-Now-305224599653591/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1287560074753367&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARAS_Hpx6E_lVKjCce2YKwqjPElbny1pXVH1kXdPT4Q89y77iUP4gi5bSSaeoFZ2at23jjbfenP3dg0f6giVWfA3ftkrxUUUVpoEIgH_vBkQldGEfH8qKqJ-1tM1FPNmntOchUN7VLlmcMo57vl6C_LgYJ47M5dJ7JKgmQeasmG1xlYkwK3hLrhQkKOkw8N4yKZqDxLpZgg2-KVTM3_FDTFQMbeHaOBGlnVPDJLHCETNOPWr-tGOt9fabmETIn8Lc_CqR2zcD9U38_iEqxAvGWlDiVQd2zwwLhHhdlnWG1Ds0yFRRc_GLylJtO4h9XvGEl5ID8hytxbEIDN4iDSLyU7RIAfZbM2AFAHBraPLKz55lrH5V8fufqHt6_0HQnoU4KF321Ta5fcIXtt5bL8H-US_ESnL6AxNxhdB_r326OTKzeAHLtYaLklVHmN-CBXcJfF2F4YOng-J8JxjMZpeUg&__tn__=-UCH-R
More of the House story with pictures; worth the time!
https://www.georgiatrust.org/preservation-awards/mccaw-massee-house/
Just want to share, for those who might suffer from milk allergies, that almond “milk” makes a good pan of gravy. You need to use the unadulterated variety – unless you like sugar and/or vanilla in your gravy.
We have folks with that pesky lactose sensitivity thing in the family so have tried just about every substitute for real milk. The almond one is very good for gravy making; the others, not so much to our taste. Use it just like you would regular milk.
Some people say that different brands of flour are ground to different fineness to suit different tastes and regional cuisines.
My late mother was a big fan of Gold Medal flour and collected their cookbooks through the 1970s, but other relatives of mine still swear by White Lily and claim that it is more finely ground and that they can tell the difference in the texture of the biscuits. Of course, the ones who prefer White Lily still use lard to make the biscuits, too.