Repetition and experimentation. You can follow one great recipe after another and consistently turn out great food. But when you make the same things again and again and you pay close attention, something else starts to happen. Subtle variations perceived throughout the process lead to subtle variations in the end product. When you make a recipe for 16 biscuits 5 times in a row, you’ll undoubtedly have some variation.
That was my task two Sundays ago, when armed with the Lee Brothers cookbook I set out to make biscuits for a crowd. The first batch was wet sticky and hard to work with, but the biscuits baked well and sampled with some jelly tasted great; A true victory… or was it?
The dough for batch two was drier and more crumbly. Not because I was thoughtfully experimenting but because I was using measuring cups, and flour measured this way will always vary to some degree. After the same amount of time in the oven batch two graced my cooling racks. They tasted exactly the same, but were noticeably more lofty flaky tender and more pleasant to eat.
And so I proceeded through batches 3, 4, and 5, each one progressing a bit faster than the one before it. I was becoming a biscuit machine, and envisioned the ability to turn out biscuits on the fly. Biscuits from scratch in thirty minutes flat! I also noticed the variation settle down, as each batch became more consistent.
None of this would have occurred had I taken the original recipe and multiplied by 5. I’d have made lots of biscuits quickly, but learned nothing. Repetition is a great teacher and not only did I learn how variations in liquids and fats effect leavening, I also committed a recipe to memory. 2 cups flour, 1 T baking powder, 4t sugar, 1t salt, 4 T butter, 2 T lard, 3/4 cup buttermilk. Mix, roll, cut, bake, and of course… Repeat.
Ham Biscuits with Sunchoke Relish
Buttermilk Biscuits
2 cups flour
1 T baking powder
4t sugar
1t salt
4 T butter
2 T lard
3/4 cup buttermilk.
Mix the dry ingredients in a food processor
Add the butter and lard and pulse till combined but chunks of butter still remain
Transfer to a mixing bowl and add buttermilk and stir to combine
Roll the dough to 1 inch thick, fold in half, and roll again. Repeat for a total of three times
Cut with a knife or biscuit cutter, and bake at 400° till golden brown and delicious.
