A Love Affair with Southern Cooking (47 page)

5 tablespoons melted bacon drippings or lard, plus more for the pan

1½ cups unsifted self-rising flour (see Note and Tip above)

²
/
₃
cup buttermilk, at room temperature

• 1.
  Preheat the oven to 375° F. Grease a well-seasoned 8-inch iron skillet with bacon drippings or lard and set aside.
  
• 2.
  Place the flour in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the center. Whisk the buttermilk with 4 tablespoons of the bacon drippings until creamy, then pour into the well in the flour. Using a large spoon, stir just until a soft dough forms. Do not overmix.
  
• 3.
  Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead lightly for about a minute. Shape the dough into a round 1½ inches thick, quarter lengthwise, then quarter crosswise so that you have four pieces of equal size. Roll each piece of dough into a ball and place in the skillet, arranging so that they don’t touch one another. Brush the tops of the biscuits with the remaining 1 tablespoon bacon drippings.
  
• 4.
  Slide the skillet onto the middle oven shelf and bake the biscuits for 30 to 35 minutes or until puffed and the color of pale parchment.
  
• 5.
  Serve hot.
  Note:
  I like to spoon hot chicken or sausage gravy over Cathead Biscuits, but some Southerners butter them and spread with blackberry jam or sweet sorghum.
  

RIZ BISCUITS

MAKES ABOUT
1¼
DOZEN BISCUITS

While researching my
American Century Cookbook
back in the 1990s, I had the devil’s own time tracing Angel Biscuits (which follow) back to their source. They seemed to have surfaced thirty or forty years earlier as the South’s hot new biscuit, and recipes for them began popping up everywhere. It was my good friend Jeanne Voltz who showed me the light. An editor, cookbook author, and food historian of note, Jeanne kept a library of food facts in her head. When I asked her about Angel Biscuits, she said that her Alabama family had made something
called Riz Biscuits (colloquial for risen biscuits), then passed along the recipe. Like Angel Biscuits, they contain three leavenings: baking powder (in the self-rising flour), baking soda, and yeast.

2½ cups sifted all-purpose self-rising flour

2 tablespoons sugar

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¹
/
₃
cup firmly packed lard or vegetable shortening (it should be ice cold)

One ¼-ounce package active dry yeast dissolved in ¼ cup very warm water (105° to 115° F.)

¹
/
₃
to ½ cup buttermilk

2 tablespoons butter, melted

• 1.
  Whisk the flour, sugar, and baking soda together in a large mixing bowl; then, using a pastry blender, cut in the lard until the texture of small peas. Quickly fork in the yeast mixture and just enough buttermilk to make a soft but workable dough.
  
• 2.
  Turn onto a floured surface and knead 4 to 5 times until smooth. With a floured rolling pin, roll the dough to a thickness of ¼ inch, then cut into rounds using a floured 2½-inch biscuit cutter. Press any scraps together, roll, and cut into rounds as before.
  
• 3.
  Beginning with the rerolled-and-cut rounds, brush half of the total number with melted butter and space 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Top with the remaining rounds and brush with the last of the melted butter.
  
• 4.
  Cover with a clean, dry cloth and let rise in a warm, draft-free spot for about 45 minutes or until doubled in bulk. Toward the end of rising, preheat the oven to 375° F.
  
• 5.
  When the biscuits are fully risen, bake in the upper third of the oven for about 15 minutes or until nicely browned. Serve hot—no additional butter needed.
  

ANGEL BISCUITS

MAKES ABOUT
2½
DOZEN BISCUITS

I remember exactly when I first encountered these celestial biscuits. It was in the early 1970s as I prowled the South in search of great grass-roots cooks to feature in a new series I was writing for
Family Circle
magazine. Through county home demonstration agents, I obtained the names of the local women who’d won prizes at the county and state fairs. I then interviewed two or three of them in each area before choosing my subject. And all, it seemed, couldn’t stop talking about “this fantastic new biscuit recipe” that was all the rage—something called Angel Biscuits. The local cookbooks I perused also featured Angel Biscuits, often two or three versions of them in a single volume. Later, when I began researching my
American Century Cookbook,
I vowed to learn the origin of these feathery biscuits. My friend Jeanne Voltz, for years the
Woman’s Day
food editor, thought that Angel Biscuits descended from an old Alabama recipe called Riz Biscuits (see preceding recipe), which she remembered from her childhood. Helen Moore, a freelance food columnist living near Charlotte, North Carolina, told me that a home economics professor of
hers at Winthrop College in South Carolina had given her the Angel Biscuits recipe back in the 1950s. “I remember her saying, ‘I’ve got a wonderful new biscuit recipe. It’s got yeast in it.’” Others I’ve queried insist that Angel Biscuits were created at one of the fine southern flour millers; some say at White Lily, others at Martha White (and both are old Nashville companies). In addition to the soft flour used to make them, Angel Biscuits owe their airiness to three leavenings: yeast, baking powder, and baking soda. Small wonder they’re also called “bride’s biscuits.” They are virtually foolproof.

5 cups sifted all-purpose flour (preferably a fine southern flour; see headnote)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ cup sugar

2 teaspoons salt

1 cup firmly packed vegetable shortening or lard or a half-and-half mixture of the two

2 cups buttermilk

One ¼-ounce package active dry yeast dissolved in ¼ cup very warm water (105° to 115° F.)

• 1.
  Preheat the oven to 400° F.
  
• 2.
  Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt into a large mixing bowl. Using a pastry blender, cut in the shortening until the texture of coarse meal. Add the buttermilk and yeast mixture and toss briskly with a fork just until the mixture forms a soft dough.
  
• 3.
  Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface and with floured hands, knead lightly for about a minute. With a floured rolling pin, roll the dough out until
  ⁵
  /
  ₈
  inch thick; then, using a well-floured 2½-to 2¾-inch cutter, cut into rounds. Place on ungreased baking sheets, spacing about 1½ inches apart. Gather scraps, reroll, and cut as before.
  
• 4.
  Bake in the lower third of the oven for 15 to 18 minutes or until the biscuits are nicely puffed and pale tan on top. Serve at once with plenty of butter.
  

SWEET POTATO BISCUITS

MAKES ABOUT
1
DOZEN BISCUITS

A while back when I was writing a food and travel story for
Bon Appétit
on the James River Plantations of Virginia, one of the charming local hostesses I interviewed was Payne Tyler of Sherwood Forest, the country estate of President John Tyler (Payne’s husband, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, is a grandson). A favorite family recipe, which I’ve adapted from Payne’s original, are these delicate sweet potato biscuits. “There’s a story that goes with them,” Payne told me. “I grew up at Mulberry Hill Plantation in Edgefield County, South Carolina, eighteen miles from Aiken. My best friend’s grandmother—everybody called her ‘Dearest’—ate breakfast every morning at ten and it was always the same: sweet potato biscuits, tea, and guava jelly. My friend Emily Ann and I liked them so much we often raced from school to Dearest’s home and ate her break
fast,” Payne continues. “She just sat there, smiled, and watched us. Never said a negative word, but I presume someone cooked another breakfast for her. Anyhow, that’s how I happen to have the receipt for these sweet potato biscuits. They are marvelous with goose or duck.” I also like them with roast turkey, chicken, and pork and with baked Virginia ham. Note:
I bake the sweet potato for this recipe instead of boiling it because it will be less watery and have richer flavor (one hour at 400° F. is about right).

1¾ cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup firmly packed lard or vegetable shortening

1 cup firmly packed unseasoned mashed sweet potato (about 1 large potato; see Note above)

¾ cup milk

• 1.
  Preheat the oven to 400° F.
  
• 2.
  Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl; then, using a pastry blender or two knives, cut in the lard until the texture of coarse meal. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture.
  
• 3.
  Combine the mashed sweet potato and milk in a small bowl, whisking until smooth; pour into the well in the flour mixture and mix briskly until the dough holds together.
  
• 4.
  Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface, sprinkle a little flour over the top, and with well-floured hands, pat the dough out until ¾ inch thick (it is too soft and sticky to roll).
  
• 5.
  Using a well-floured 2¾-inch biscuit cutter, cut the dough into rounds and arrange on ungreased baking sheets, spacing them about 1½ inches apart. Gather the scraps of dough, pat out, and cut as before.
  
• 6.
  Bake the biscuits in the lower third of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until nicely browned.
  
• 7.
  Serve hot with plenty of butter.