My dad made the best biscuits I've ever eaten and his recipe was simple. Only 4 ingredients--(1)salt(2)self rising flour (3)buttermilk (4)grease/cooking oil. Mix buttermilk,self rising flour and dash of salt into a thick paste. Form biscuits by hand---a little flour on your hands helps keep it from sticking so bad. Onto a greased platter/cookie sheet place the formed biscuit,then turn it over so the top will be greased. Bake till done. That's it. If you try it,would appreciate feedback on it. Mine come out pretty good--but not as good as dads.

Carpetman,

My stepdad used to make sum good biscuits like that. But he didn't waste no flour on his hands. He would usually skin out the possum we was gonna have first and after that the biscuits didn't ever stick to his hands.
Plinker

Plinker603
Coon fat workes better.

Carpetman,

About those biscuits.... you didn't provide the measurements. How MUCH buttermilk, flour, salt and oil?

I'm figuring probably two cups flour, a teaspoon of salt and maybe a quarter cup of oil...but how much buttermilk?

Plinker

Plinker---This was a recipe--not a Science project. You use however much it takes to make a stiff paste. Will say if you use more flour,you need more buttermilk and will make more biscuits unless you make bigger biscuits,if you make bigger biscuits there will be fewer. Hope this helps..

Same way with your Stew. You didn't say how many elephants to use.

well the elephant stew wasnt a science project either.

Carpetman,

Imagine you are leafing through Handyman or Wood magazine. You come across this advertisement that shows a nice bookshelf and you think you'd like to make it. Costs $6.95 for the plans. You send for them. They come. You open what seems to be an undersized envelope.

It says:
All you need is some boards, a few nails, some glue and a saw.....

Would that be enough information?



Plinker

Plinker---Send me $6.95 and I'll give you exact,precision,amounts on the recipe. Now for the bookcase--how many books will you have on it? Same with the biscuits--how many people you feeding. BTW my $6.95 version will be in West Virginia terms you can grasp--dab of this,dab of that. For free,you just don't get the number of dabs. Dab nabit.

Carpetman,

$6.95 huh? Sorry, maybe later. Found a better deal. There's this cute little naked guy called Pop N. Fresh??? He offered me 2 cans/$1.59! Probably not as good as your pop's but that giggle was hard to resist.

Plinker

Plinker603- Try this:
2 cups self-rising flour
4 tablespoons shortening
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat to 400. (important)
Cut shortening into flour with a fork unil crumbly. Pour in buttermilk and mix lightly. Pat dough out onto floured surface. Don't mess with the dough too much, it makes them tough. Cut out and place on greased pan. (grease the tops as well) Bake about 12 min. Perfect!

Thanks Blairden. I'm glad to see some people on here are shareful. Didn't have to be written in dabbledegook either, it makes perfect sense.

I'm gonna give it a try, soon as i clear those doughboys out of the 'frig.

Plinker

Those bisquits sound great.I often add a good shot of ground black pepper and some grated old cheddar cheese to mine.Kind of opens your eyes at 4 am. in the wall tent with a hot cup of coffee.

Ok,I'm ready for some reports on how the biscuits turned out.

Okay i made the biscuits. I had to use olive oil because i didn't have any shortening, but they still turned out good. I spread a lot of butter on the top and it soaked in when they baked and so they were a nice golden tan.

Didn't try any pepper and cheese, figured it'd be best to get the basics down first.

For those with inquiring minds, two cups of flour makes 6 biscuits. There is two left over.

Plinker603

Plinker---would how big you make the biscuits have any bearing on how many you get out of two cups of flour?

Wasn't complaining. I must jus like big biscuits. That way i can say i just ate two. When my brother comes over, i'll make 12 and tell everone my biscuits was so good that he had 8 of em all by hisself.


Plinker

You folks that haven't tried my biscuits----Plinker is already making plans to make them again and connive a way she can eat more of them. That should tell you something.

I tried Blairden's recipe. It was good, but I used the last part of a bag of flour that was a couple of years old. I think the self-rising stuff had settled to the bottom and my buscuits tasted salty or like baking powder. I'll try again with fresh flour.

Max503,
Mandatory. You HAVE to use fresh flour. Here's a few other tips:
You don't have to use shortening. This morning I made a pan with just self-rising flour and buttermilk. They're great. Just not as light and fluffy, but not bad with a sausage pattie sandwiched in or gravy poured over. Also, make sure you use plenty of extra flour when patting and cutting them out. Won't be as sticky.

Here's a great recipe for gravy.
Sausage Gravy
In a good -sized skillet, brown and crumble about a pound of Jimmy Dean Sausage. Sprinke somewhere around 1/4 to a 1/2 cup all-purpose flour into browned sausage. Continue cooking and stirring constantly for 5 to 10 min. until flour is starting to brown (lightly, low to med. heat) If it seemes too dry, can add a couple of tablespoons of butter. Slowly, begin to add milk, (will take a good bit) stirring constantly. Gravy will begin to simmer and thicken. Add more milk as needed along with salt and pepper to taste. Serve over hot split biscuits.

Blairden,

no shortening... low-fat version, huh? I just BOUGHT shortening because i wanted to use up the rest of the buttermilk. Oh well. low fat might be a good idea. A person could probably gain 10 or 12 lbs from eating a bunch of biscuits....

Plinker

By all means, use the shortening. You'll probably like them better. Just thought I'd give a couple of versions. Try them both and let me know which you like best.

Lots of different ways to make biscuits, have yet to find a bad one..Beer, Buttermilk, Sweet milk and even water will make good biscuits..

I ran out of buttermilk and so i used a quarter cup of powdered parmesian cheese and two big tablespoons of mayonnaise and water. They turned out okay.

Plinker603