Post by Glen Carman aka Delmonico on Jun 11, 2019 22:14:28 GMT -6
Buttermilk and Sourdough Biscuits
These are sometimes misunderstood, the origins of these days back to before baking powder, the acid in cultured buttermilk or the sourdough started reacts with either baking soda aka Sodium bicarbonate aka salertus or on earlier times a refined wood ash called pearl ash, both being alkaline substances and as we learned in chemistry class mixing an acid and an alkaline substance produces CO2 which provides pur leavening.
Buttermilk Biscuits
2 cups flour
½ to 1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of sugar (optional)
3 tablespoons of lard or 4 tablespoons of butter
¾ cup of cultured buttermilk (more or less).
Sourdough Biscuits
1 ½ cups flour
½ to 1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of sugar (optional)
3 tablespoons of lard or 4 of butter
1 cup sourdough starter
Mix the dry ingredients and cut in the butter/lard the liquid, stir with hand, just enough to mix well adding a bit more buttermilk/starter or flour to get slightly sticky soft dough. Working it beyond what is needed with toughen the final product, stir as much as possible.
We are now ready to bake this, have the dutch oven one plans on using ready and very lightly greased or at least make sure it’s well seasoned. (A 12 inch cast iron frying pan will work in the home kitchen. When using the oven at home, preheat to 425-450.) When baking with a dutch oven outside the question is if to preheat or not before baking. I seldom do, for one it’s an extra step and I like to keep it simple because I’m often running several ovens at once, also with coals and the iron it comes up to temperature in about the same time as putting a non preheated cooking vessel in a preheated oven. But like most things where there is more than one way to do it, none of the methods are wrong provided the results are as desired. With these quick breads you just want to bake in a hot oven which is around the same temperature as recommended for the home oven.
Cut Biscuits: Roll the dough or flatten with your hands to between ½ inch and 1 inch thick, cut the desired size with either a biscuit cutter or an empty can. Place on the bottom of the oven and bake 10-15 minutes or till golden brown.
Cathead Biscuits: A common old west term for a biscuit formed with the hand instead of rolled and cut, often bigger and thicker than a cut one, hence the term, depending on the size, these will need to bake longer than the smaller cut biscuits.
Drop Biscuits: Use the above recipe but increase the milk to 1 cup and using a tablespoon, fill it to heaping with the softer dough and drop them in the bottom of the oven and bake as above, these also tend to be thicker and need a little extra baking time over a thinner cut biscuit.
These are sometimes misunderstood, the origins of these days back to before baking powder, the acid in cultured buttermilk or the sourdough started reacts with either baking soda aka Sodium bicarbonate aka salertus or on earlier times a refined wood ash called pearl ash, both being alkaline substances and as we learned in chemistry class mixing an acid and an alkaline substance produces CO2 which provides pur leavening.
Buttermilk Biscuits
2 cups flour
½ to 1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of sugar (optional)
3 tablespoons of lard or 4 tablespoons of butter
¾ cup of cultured buttermilk (more or less).
Sourdough Biscuits
1 ½ cups flour
½ to 1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of sugar (optional)
3 tablespoons of lard or 4 of butter
1 cup sourdough starter
Mix the dry ingredients and cut in the butter/lard the liquid, stir with hand, just enough to mix well adding a bit more buttermilk/starter or flour to get slightly sticky soft dough. Working it beyond what is needed with toughen the final product, stir as much as possible.
We are now ready to bake this, have the dutch oven one plans on using ready and very lightly greased or at least make sure it’s well seasoned. (A 12 inch cast iron frying pan will work in the home kitchen. When using the oven at home, preheat to 425-450.) When baking with a dutch oven outside the question is if to preheat or not before baking. I seldom do, for one it’s an extra step and I like to keep it simple because I’m often running several ovens at once, also with coals and the iron it comes up to temperature in about the same time as putting a non preheated cooking vessel in a preheated oven. But like most things where there is more than one way to do it, none of the methods are wrong provided the results are as desired. With these quick breads you just want to bake in a hot oven which is around the same temperature as recommended for the home oven.
Cut Biscuits: Roll the dough or flatten with your hands to between ½ inch and 1 inch thick, cut the desired size with either a biscuit cutter or an empty can. Place on the bottom of the oven and bake 10-15 minutes or till golden brown.
Cathead Biscuits: A common old west term for a biscuit formed with the hand instead of rolled and cut, often bigger and thicker than a cut one, hence the term, depending on the size, these will need to bake longer than the smaller cut biscuits.
Drop Biscuits: Use the above recipe but increase the milk to 1 cup and using a tablespoon, fill it to heaping with the softer dough and drop them in the bottom of the oven and bake as above, these also tend to be thicker and need a little extra baking time over a thinner cut biscuit.