Thursdays Are For Cooking
I must be getting far too nostalgic for the Good Ol’ Days, when things were not quite so peculiar and people still addressed each other with a degree of courtesy. So I’m dropping this one in, because it’s a reminder of when things were somewhat more civilized and Mao Tse-Tung was blowing off the news that millions of Chinese people were literally starving to death, because there was a prolonged drought (10 years, if I recall correctly), and my Dad got mad at us if we didn’t clean our plates.
I miss those days.
Baking Powder Biscuits from the 1953 Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook
2 cups of sifted all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
½ teaspoon of salt
¼ cup of shortening
(NOTE: the recipe calls for ¼ cup shortening, but my Dad wrote in ½ cup; )
2/3 to ¾ cup of milk
Directions:
– 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
** 450F is the temperature given in the 1952 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.
**Baking soda reacts with buttermilk to make the dough rise.
Put a good, soppy gravy on the biscuits, maybe chipped beef or sausage gravy, and enjoy.
Biscuit cutter? Phhttt! Pinch off a piece of dough ’bout the size of a tangerine, pat that cathead out and lay ’em on the baking sheet. When your fingers break contact with the dough it will leave the little “cathead ears” sticking up. (flour coated hands help here)
Biscuits and sausage gravy. Dave Hardin showing up in 5.4.3.2..
Put some South in yore mouth! Tanks Ex…Let’s eat!
S#$t on a cathead shingle?
I have not yet begun to fat!
Any time, KoB. I needed a reminder myself of a time when things made a lot more sense than they do right now.
Thanks Ex! Great recipe and it makes me want to have some for breakfast tomorrow.
Do it, Sparks. They’re always good, regardless.
I should have added to the recipe that doubling the shortening in the biscuit recipe makes them a lot flakier…. in my humble opinion.
Hot Buttermilk Biscuits…With REAL Butter…and REAL Bacon…
Comfort food at its best…Better than the ice cream consumed by Hiden Biden…
Always reminds me of my Grandma, wearing a flowered apron, making those biscuits using a wood burning stove..
Thank You, Ex, for another wonderful recipe…and the memories.
😊
My maternal grandma had a 1932 Roper gas stove, with the burners to the side of the oven, and the oven up on the same level as the burners, all on cabriole (curved) legs that let you sweep the floor clean.
My paternal grandma had a more modern range, with the oven under the cooktop, but it was also on short curbed legs. The oven had a pilot light, which was a new innovation.
We also had milk and butter delivered to us by the milkman and in the summer, the iceman would bring block of ice for the icebox and give us kids chunks of ice that he chipped off one of the blocks. He was very, very popular.
MMMMmmmmm. Biscuts and that sausage gravy is calling me.
Navy Chipped Beef and Gravy
You’ll need:
Dried Beef in a jar
Butter
Flour
Milk
Salt and Pepper
Ground dry mustard
Worcestershire Sauce
You’ll do:
Melt butter in a saucepan, add sliced dried beef.
Add flour, and cook for 1 minute. (for the chefs, make a light roux)
Slowly add milk while stirring.
Bring to a slow boil while stirring constantly until desired thickness is achieved.
Add salt, pepper mustard and Worcestershire sauce to taste.
Serve over shingle of choice.
Pro tip- rinse chipped beef well prior to use. That stuff is salty. Thanks, Ex!
AW1ED:
Navy SOS???
Well, if it IS Navy SOS, shouldnt you leave the salt in the chipped beef…as in Salt Water…Salty Dog…Swabby…😉
The Army USED TO use chipped beef in their Messhall SOS (when I was an Army Brat)…However, when I finally became a Soldier, they were using Ground Beef.
Mason, what is the Air Force Version of SOS? I already have the Marine Corps recipe.
Thanks, Ed!
BTW, gabn…
😎😉
Also…
Mustard? In SOS?
Hmmm…Will have to try, that is, if we had the measurements for the butter, flour, salt, pepper, mustard, worcestshire sauce, milk, chipped beef….
😎😉
Measurements are overrated. You’re an accomplished cook- wing it and remember the First Rule of Cooking.
“This is exactly how I wanted it to turn out.”
*grin*
Go Get’em, Goat!
Air Force version is steak with a sherry cream sauce over focaccia..
Steak au poivre. Brandy, not sherry. One of the nicer things to do with beef tenderloin medallions.
I was going with Steak Diane, which does use sherry, but I like your option as well.
Q: (from an advanced non-cook)
Can you bake the biscuits in an oven pre-heated cast iron skillet?
You can -Dog but not really recommended. The cast iron would have a tendency to burn the bottom of them cat heads. Heat dissipation and all that. Baking sheets are for baking. Gots to have much skilz in baking in cast iron for it to do right. You know you have arrived when you can bake up some cat headed biskets in a cast iron dutch oven over coals. (pro tip…more hot coals on lid than underneath)
Yes, you can.
Here is but one recipe:
Buttermilk Biscuits
Makes about 6
Ingredients
3 cups self-rising flour
¾ cup cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 cup whole buttermilk, chilled
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
Instructions
Preheat oven to 450°.
In a large bowl, place flour. Using a pastry blender or 2 forks, cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Gradually add buttermilk, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.
On a lightly floured surface, gently knead dough 4 times. Roll dough about ¾ inch thick. Fold dough in half. Using a 3-inch round cutter, cut dough, rerolling scraps once.
Wipe bottom and sides of an 8- to 10-inch cast-iron skillet with oil. Place pan in oven until very hot, about 5 minutes. Place biscuits in hot pan, overlapping slightly if needed.
Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes
Source: https://www.southerncastiron.com/buttermilk-biscuits/
Lodge, the people who make cast iron skillets, have a recipe for biscuits in a preheated skillet found here:
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/recipe/briggs-buttermilk-biscuits
Cornbread is made in a heated cast iron skillet as well. (With or without sugar. 😉 )
No pressure cooker, gc?
*grin*
Baked goods don’t do well in a pressure cooker. (But you knew that. 🙂 ) But if you want to start SOS with shredded beef not from a can, the pressure cooker will work on a roast and you can pull the beef apart. Just sayin’)
I did, however, purchase a Instant Omni Plus which is a toaster over, air fryer, rotisserie, all in one thing. Between the Instant Pot and the Instant Omni Plus, I am living large. Cooking times and cleanup are way down.
(More time for eating. :D)