Your Southern Can is Mine: The Search for the Perfect Biscuit
Jeannette Ordas
Despite being from the Northern climes, I think I make a pretty mean biscuit. I've spent some time in the States and tried more than a few of these fluffy buttermilk creations served with sausage gravy or alongside some chicken fried steak. So I thought I knew what I was in for when my Durham, NC friend came to Vancouver for a visit. Out of her suitcase she pulled out the big guns...a $3.29 bag of Southern Biscuit ™ Complete Biscuit Mix.
While I liked that the directions were easy (just add buttermilk and lightly stir!), I was a bit worried about the addition of the "Golden Shortening Flakes" (and what was Formula L all about?). But I forged on and after a short turn in the oven, I tore into my first biscuit-from-a-mix. The results? Off the charts on the Fluff-o-Meter! This biscuit was lighter than air and I instantly became jealous. However, upon further inspection, I could taste a packaged, unnatural flavour (hmmmm, those Golden Flakes perhaps?). Doused in sausage gravy (as I can attest to) they are perfect. On their own, I'm still looking for the real thing.
So I headed online and stumbled upon the very Southern blog, Dixie Caviar and found her recipe for flaky buttermilk biscuits. Using a recipe from Cooks Illustrated, she discovered the secret to all that flaky goodness was folding the dough to create steam pockets. Ah ha, this could be the Southern secret I was waiting for!
Homesick Texan takes a different tack and pretty much beats the pants off of her biscuit dough. The beating injects air into the biscuits, but since they've already taken such a pounding they do end up being pretty flat. However, hearing her grandma exclaim after eating one, “My, my. These are heavenly!” makes me want to try my hand at a bit of pounding.
But it's Pinch My Salt who explains the trials of Southern vs Northern flours and why White Lily flour (available to order online) is the flour of choice for so many home cooks. Southern flours are made from a softer wheat while the Northern wheat is more hearty with more protein which makes for a heavier biscuit. Damn, I knew there had to be a good reason for not getting the sky-high biscuits of my dreams! Now that I'm armed with a bag of White Lily flour (it pays to have friends in the South), I'm ready to whistle some Dixie and pound out some true homemade Southern biscuits of my own.
