I have the gravy making down but my biscuits could get the cook killed on a good day. Before my life is forfeited, could I please get some good recipes for biscuits from scratch?
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I have the gravy making down but my biscuits could get the cook killed on a good day. Before my life is forfeited, could I please get some good recipes for biscuits from scratch?
I've tried a number of recipes and this one so far is the best I've found:
https://www.momontimeout.com/perfect...y-time-recipe/
The Reverend Al’s Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits
3 cups of all purpose flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
¾ teaspoon of baking soda
1 tablespoon of Garlic powder (optional)
¾ cup of any suitable type of shortening (such as butter, Crisco, bacon grease, lard, margarine, etc.)
1 cup of grated cheese (Cheddar or your choice of mixed cheeses) this is also optional and you can make them without cheese if you like.
1 cup of buttermilk plus one egg stirred together well
Pre-heat oven to about 375 - 425 degrees. (Ovens vary, but I bake mine at 425)
Sift the flour to make sure that there are no lumps. Add the baking powder, salt, baking soda, and Garlic powder if you’re using it. Mix the dry ingredients well. (I use a whisk or the pastry blender to stir the dry ingredients together in the bowl until they’re all well blended.) Add the shortening and work it into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender until the entire mix resembles coarse cornmeal. Add the grated cheese and mix well again.
Next, add the buttermilk / egg mixture, working it into the flour mix with a large, solid spoon or a table knife. After everything is thoroughly mixed, roll it out onto a floured board or counter top. Knead the dough as little as possible, adding more flour if it’s too wet, or a bit more buttermilk if it’s too dry, until the dough doesn’t stick to your hands, and has a “satin” look and feel to it.
After it has the right consistency, roll or pat out the dough to about ¾” thick, and cut out the biscuits with a 2” to 3” biscuit cutter, or if in hunting camp I use the end of a soup can with the top and the bottom cut out. If you lightly flour the end of the biscuit cutter or soup can as you cut them, the biscuits won’t stick to your cutter plus they will rise in layers as they bake, yielding a nice, light and fluffy style of biscuit.
I use a flat cookie sheet for baking biscuits and use baking parchment paper or silicon baking sheets on the bottom of the cookie sheets to prevent the biscuits from burning on their bottoms.
In our oven about 10 to 12 minutes is just about right for light, medium browned biscuits. If they are too dry in the middle, bake for a slightly shorter time, as they should be slightly moist in the centre when finished.
... or ...
THE CAMP COOK'S BEST BISCUITS
Ingredients
- 4 cups of flour
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup butter or Crisco
- 2/3 cup whole sweet milk
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp sugar
- 6 tsp baking powder
Preparation & Cooking
Add the dry ingredients to the flour, mix well. Cut in the shortening with two knives or a pastry blender. Add the milk and beaten eggs. Mix only until blended. (Do not overwork the dough and you will get light and flakey biscuits!) Press the dough (do not roll) into a cake about 3/4 inch thick. Dust with additional flour as needed. Cut rounds with a biscuit cutter, or if you are in camp then use a clean, empty, floured 14 oz. tin can / soup tin. Place the rounds closely in a frying pan or baking sheet and bake at about 450 degrees F for 15 minutes or until golden. The amounts given here will make about one dozen "man sized" biscuits. These beautiful biscuits are good with butter, better with honey, but BEST when drowned in thick, rich sausage gravy.
... or ...
The Very Best Cowboy Camp Baking Powder Biscuits
4 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, plus some extra for bench flour
2 1/2 tablespoons of Baking Powder
4 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoons of salt
1 cup of shortening (or butter or bacon fat)
1 1/2 cups of whole milk
1 large egg
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt until evenly combined. Blend the shortening or butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender until the mix resembles coarse meal.
Mix the milk and egg together in a measuring cup and whisk them together until thoroughly mixed. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and blend together until it forms into a wet dough. Dust your work surface with some bench flour, and work the dough lightly adding bench flour until it's not too wet, and then fold it over and over several times to create flakier biscuits. Roll out or pat out the dough until it's about 3/4" thick, and then using a large sized biscuit cutter, cut out the biscuits and place them on a greased baking sheet. (In camp I use a soup can with both ends cut out as a biscuit cutter, and dip the end in flour so the biscuits don't stick) This recipe will make about 12 to 16 cowboy sized biscuits.
Bake for 12 minutes until golden brown on top. Serve hot with butter.
Optional glaze:
1 tablespoon of heavy cream
1 tablespoon of melted butter
Lightly brush the biscuit tops with the glaze just before baking.
As another option, I usually just spray the biscuit tops with a bit of olive oil from our pump sprayer just before baking, rather than using the glaze listed above.
I've also added some grated Cheddar to the dry mix just before adding the wet ingredients, and made them into Cowboy Camp Cheese biscuits too, and they're great that way!
Thanks Reverend Al!!
I'm going to have to try those recipes, which seem to be easier than the one I was using.
2 cups white lilly self rising flour
put 1 stick (1/4 lb) butter in freezer for 30 minutes, then grate into flour mixing in with fingertips
add 1 cup cold buttermilk and mix enough to bring dough together
roll out quickly to about 3/4" and cut biscuits about 2" and
place on greased pan touching into 425* preheated oven
cook 12-15 minutes
PS: Everything needs to be COLD
Don't overwork dough!
If camping, you don't need an oven to bake biscuits. I have used a cast iron skillet with a lid to make biscuits for many years.
Put the skillet on low heat with the lid on several minutes before putting biscuit dough in skillet.
Let your nose be your guide on when to turn the biscuits over or check them after 3-4 minutes if you don't trust your nose.
When I was a kid every local function we had in the rural area there where plates of SCONES I never found a use for them except to scrape out the jam and cream or whatever filling they had and bin the rest, sorry I just never took to them
Here's the one I keep coming back to:
Its from the Duck Dynasty TV show folks.
https://duckcommander.com/recipes/miss-kay's-biscuits
The link doesn't work right.
It goes to their cookbook front page. Click through the pages- Miss Kay's biscuits are on page 11.
This is a variation of an old Fannie Farmer cooking school recipe from about 100 years ago
that called for whole cream instead of sour cream.
You're welcome! The one I make most often is the buttermilk biscuit, friends and family ask for that one the most often. If you don't have any buttermilk on hand then measure out the same amount in whole milk (or add a bit of coffee cream to 2% milk) and then add about 2 tablespoons of white vinegar. Mix well and let it sit for a couple of minutes and it will thicken up and taste just like buttermilk.Quote:
Originally Posted by Outpost75
How about posting your gravy recipe?Quote:
Originally Posted by warren5421
BB
I'll give you my recipe on how I make my gravy.
Brown one half pound of pork sausage in 10" cast iron skillet, do not drain.
Sprinkle in 1/3 cup flour and stir to coat sausage. (This part is critical for the taste my wife likes)
Stir flour and sausage mixture over medium heat until flour is browned, about a minute and a half.
Stir in milk, about one cup to start with, adding a little at a time letting it thicken until you get the amount of gravy you need.
Leftover sausage gravy is not the same as fresh!
Warren, I feel your pain. I have tried many "perfect" "best" "southern" "grandma's" (you name it) biscuit recipes with none of them turning out all that good. I read somewhere on the net about the flour you use is part of the problem. In Wyoming where I live there is limited selection of flour.....bread and "all purpose", both made from hard red or winter wheat that is way too high in protein content. I used to think flour was flour, but its not. I read that "self rising" flour is made from a softer wheat that is lower in protein. Using self rising flour has made all the difference in the way any biscuit recipe I have tried turns out. Just remember that self rising flour has baking powder and salt already mixed in, so if using a recipe that calls for salt or baking powder, you may want to leave it out or cut way back.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/...recipe-2041990Quote:
Originally Posted by Outpost75
This one looks like the Alton Brown recipe that we use. You can substitute coconut oil for butter if you like and 1 tbs vinegar with milk as buttermilk.
Don't forget Jr.'s biscuit recipe.
MISSISSIPPI DELTA CATHEAD BISCUITS - They're called "cathead biscuits" because they should be about the size of a cat's head. They should be somewhat round on top and not flat like canned biscuits. Do not cut them out of rolled-out dough with the rim of a glass or with any other implement as every biscuit recipe I've ever read said to do. Roll them into a ball with your hands. Why make home-made biscuits if they look like store-bought biscuits?Here's the recipe for four cathead biscuits which will satisfy two hungry people. It calls for a Lodge Manufacturing8" cast iron skillet. For more people, double the recipe and use a Lodge 10" skillet. You'll need:
1 1/8 cup self-rising flour
2/3 cup milk or buttermilk
1/8 cup oil or bacon drippings
Step #1: Blend above ingredients in a mixing bowl.Step #2: Dump a hand full of flour on a pastry cloth or whatever. As you can see, I use a brown paper sack. Newspaper also works just fine.Step #3: As in the top photo, dump the blended dough onto the flour.Step #4: Pour a dash of oil into your skillet and smear it around with your fingers. Coat the inside of the skillet and the palms of your hands with oil.Step #5: Knead the dough for about 30 seconds, rolling it in the flour and thickening it.Step #6: Half the dough as in the middle photo. Half it again, making 4 pieces of dough.Step #7: Roll each piece of dough between your hands, making it into a ball, then put it in the skillet.Step #8: As you see me doing in this photo, use a spoon or a pastry brush and put a little oil or bacon drippings on the top of each un-baked biscuit. You're ready to start cooking.
Preheat oven to 350°
Bake 25 minutes at 350°
Broil/toast for 1 or 2 minutes
Enjoy!
For gravy I take a pound to pound and a half of home made pork sausage I get off a pig farmer by me. I brown it in a 12" cast-iron skillet that was my grandma's add flower (I never measure it) till it looks right to me. Mixing with the grease and sausage on low heat. Turn the heat to med/med high (stove type determines the heat) add whole milk till it is mixed with the flower mixture, will be runny add salt and pepper to taste, turn heat down and simmer till it gets as thick as you want, if needed to thicken up a little more add a small amount of flower to help. Remove from fire and spoon over good biscuits. Add home made apple butter and jelly on the side for the extra biscuits. Grandkids ask that I put the biscuits in a bowl before the gravy is put on so they can use a spoon and get it all. The 16 year old then takes an extra biscuit and wipes the bowl after his second or third helping, his dad isn't far behind him on eating. Nothing left for the dog.
Grandma makes the biscuits to help keep me around
Tried Outpost75's recipe on post #2, this morning. Cut the butter into "pats" and stuck in the freezer for about 10 min and cut back the baking powder to 3 tsp and added 1/2 tsp of baking soda (heard this cuts down the baking powder taste) to the mix. Talk about a tender biscuit-----best biscuits I have ever made.
I made Outpost75's recipe today and son said the best biscuits I had ever made but not as good as mom's. No biscuits or gravy was left after him, wife and 4 kids got done. I think he was just staying on the good side of mom.
If you want a challenge look up beaten biscuits.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rockrat
That picture says a lot.
One thing I noticed on pie crusts. I get a better crust with Crisco than some of the no name copies. I was buying Aldi’s Shortening and for the life of me my pie crust recipe and Alton brown biscuit recipes were flat and hockey pucks. Took me awhile to track it back to the shortening.
I stick to Crisco and King Arthur flour. Not much different than reloading, change components and you get something different.
Amen [emoji120]. Some things ya just can’t skimp on. Philly cream cheese [emoji3058], Velveeta, King Arthur flour, Heinz 57 catsup, French’s Mustard & Worcestershire sauce, A-1 steak sauce, Tabasco! These are not areas to go no name on!Quote:
Originally Posted by Lance Boyle