Why Most of America is Terrible at Making Biscuits

[mahatmakanejeeves]

The Tyranny Of Evil Hats Retweeted

Fam, happy Thanksgiving. @TheAtlantic asked me to write about learning to make my family’s biscuit recipe in New York and the reason why the biscuits up here are so profoundly terrible.

Link to tweet

There's a scientific reason that no one outside the South can nail the iconic baked good.

[Phoenix61]

1. I have finally mastered buttermilk biscuits

made with butter. It's dangerous to know how to do some things.

[AJT]

2. Why can't anyone outside of New York make a bagel?

[hlthe2b]

3. For those of us eternally eating "lo carb," even "bad" biscuits are crave-worthy...

[violetpastille]

4. The Upshot: We Can't. So Let's Take The Ingredients and Make Flour Tortillas.

[CentralMass]

10. Thank you.

[RKP5637]

5. Best ones I ever had was in Tennessee when I was traveling through and stayed at

a hotel serving breakfast. They had this incredible white gravy/sauce with hamburger in it. They were incredibly good. I ate far too many of them and with incredibly good scrambled eggs and sausages. Likely cholesterol heaven, but man were they good.

[tnlurker]

6. That gravy you had was made from crumbled breakfast sausage

Not hamburger.

It is s staple in southern breakfast or at least in Tennessee. We just call it sausage gravy.

Some places you can get gravy without sausage that should be made with bacon grease or sausage grease

[RKP5637]

7. Thank you!!! It was so incredibly good!!!! n/t

[pamela]

9. It could have been hamburger.

Yes, probably sausage in a restaurant but this southerner grew up eating hamburger gravy. Still make it fairly often. Delicious!

[pansypoo53219]

8. i adored popeye's biscuits of yore. i can make a good biscuit. i used the clabber girls,

but the settlement cook book's is easier. i also add WAY more 'old' baking powder. trues cook's kitchen's cats head biscuits-CRAP!!!! will try baking in cast iron w/ extra butter on the top + bottom.

[eppur_se_muova]

11. If someone doesn't know what "cat's head" biscuits are, that sentence is undecipherable.

It's sort of like using the phrase "fox testicle ice cream jump rope" out of context.

[pansypoo53219]

14. biscuits as big as a cat's head. they did NOT taste like a biscuit at all.

[Solly Mack]

12. Whenever I was away from a White Lily source my sister shipped bags of it to me.

Both flours and corn meal.

My biscuits are wonderful. My corn bread divine.

[jmowreader]

13. Oh lord...

Cake flour is ground from soft winter wheat.

To convert it to White Lily-style self-rising flour, it's 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt per cup of flour.

[mainer]

15. I didn't know that

Thanks for the tip. I love White Lily flour but can’t get it except mail order.

[yellowdogintexas]

16. I live in Fort Worth and White Lily is available at several supermarkets.

When I moved to Boston in 1969, I could not find the following:

white self rising corn meal (or any self rising corn meal for that matter just the polenta like stuff used for keeping pizza from sticking)
Great Northern Beans
Turnip greens or mustard greens.

Buttermilk was kind of hard to find and usually only one brand. I was used to several brands in a variety of sizes. I can't bake without it - certain cakes are not the same without it. Plus biscuits and cornbread.

I was desperate for White Beans and cornbread and requested it from my mother on my first trip back to KY. I was one of those people who brought cornmeal back to the North, along with the Great Northern Beans. My sister, who ended up in Connecticut used to do the same and she also smuggled pulled pork barbecue. Can't do that anymore.

I did not make biscuits much so did not run into that problem. However if you are not using self rising flour, you can make baking powder biscuits with sweet milk and buttermilk biscuits with soda. There is a difference. I prefer the buttermilk ones.

My guess was lack of good buttermilk for this problem but the flour makes complete sense.

When I go to Arizona for Christmas I am taking some White Lily cornbread mix with me to make cornbread for New Year's Day to go with the black eyed peas. My daughter's Kurdish Iranian inlaws like black eyed peas a lot. She cooks them with a smoked turkey leg instead of ham. It turns out great and her mother in law love them. She is the only family member who does not eat pork.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

17. I can hardly find mustard greens in northern Virginia.

A couple of stores say they have them, but one nibble is all it takes for me to know that, nope, these aren't mustard greens.

Sheesh, I love mustard greens.