Here’s a country treat:
Chocolate Gravy
4 Pillsbury Grands (or homemade biscuits)
1/4 cup sugar
2 TBS cocoa
1 TBS flour
3/4 cup milk
4 tsp butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
Back when the cafeteria here at school still made a special lunch for the teachers every day, we once got Chicken ala King. I caught the eye of Judy the Lunch Lady and told her that I knew she had a FM 10-23-2 back in her office and if I ever saw SOS on the menu there would be words spoken!
Although when made in much smaller quantities, from quality ingredients, SOS can be quite tasty.
I’m don’t understand the implication.
Southern biscuits aren’t light and flaky. Wouldn’t hold enough gravy that way.
Interesting. So just dense lumps of baked dough? From the photos I’ve seen in southern cookbooks, it would appear that they rise up pretty good. In fact, angel biscuits (which include yeast) are a southern invention and are commonly made because of their lightness. All of the recipes in this book, for instance, stress methods that always result in a light biscuit. Not being snarky here; I’ve never really traveled in the South much, so am unfamiliar with dishes actually made in the region.
My husband makes the biscuits and I make the gravy. His biscuits are so light you can hardly feel their weight in your hand, and usually rise about an inch and a half. I don’t know how he does it. You could use mine for shooting skeet.
It’s going to vary a lot. Traditionally southern baking used lower gluten flour (don’t know why), so a lot of recipes are for dense crumbly biscuits. I can’t say what’s normal, just what I experienced. I kind of like the heavy ones. That’s what I’ve encountered in the South mostly. My parents were from Tennessee, but they weren’t good cooks. I think it will be like anything else in the Southern Cooking category, each region has it’s preferences, and insist theirs is the right way to do it.
Depends on what the biscuits are meant for. Dinner? Light and fluffy. As a base for gravy? Denser and more crumbly. All you have to do is tweak the ingredients a bit and tork the prep a smidge.
Mmmm. Biscuits & Gravy. With sausage, eggs, and grits.
Yup. Load me up a plate of that.
Having grown up in South Dakota, I can’t remember mom making biscuits and gravy as a kid (also in the '70’s), but they didn’t seem like a foreign thing when I had them later, so she must have. I do remember her making SOS though and I actually liked it.
Yeah that’s… kind of obvious. Fennel, I swear to god. I agree with Tripolar – actual biscuits served in the south are fairly dense, and soak up the gravy. The light layers and airy mouthfeel typical of “tube” biscuits are anathema to southern biscuitry, in my experience. Instead, they are somewhat cakey, like so, although they should not be dense. Indeed, a few brands actually now sell a “Southern” style tube biscuit that’s of a piece and less layered.
Nothing unhealthy at all. Just pure food…
Yeah, it’s made from soft winter wheat, which is lower in protein. Lower protein makes for lighter (not denser) cakes, cookies, pie crusts, biscuits and the like. I buy White Lily from the internet, but you can get the same effect from something like Softassilk cake flour, which is usually available in the north. Truly, the secret is in the mixing of the ingredients. If you work the dough longer, you get denser biscuits. Ditto if your fat isn’t cold when you add it.
Hello Again: Your linked recipe is almost exactly how I make mine. Except that mine are not those pallid looking lumps in the photo. They either didn’t leave them in long enough, or their oven was too cold, even though the recipe calls for 450. And I’ll take my flavorful gravy over that tasteless shit I’ve had in restaurants any day.
ETA: also, see step 15 in that recipe.
:smack: Now I remember. Yeah, gluten is good for bread and pasta, but makes powder risen stuff denser. I have some vague memories about a lack of baking powder during the civil war or it’s short life in the hot humid clime. But more likely they’re just old rural recipes from when people just didn’t have baking powder all the time. I usually make drop biscuits for B&G, because it’s a quicker prep. Even when I make the yeast risen ones they still have the texture and density I’m used to. But it’s not hard to make baked food dense, light and fluffy is a lot harder.
I think descriptive terms get tangled up in interpretation. My biscuits rise very nicely, and come apart in layers, if I desire. I guess ‘flaky’ would be more like a croissant, which is definitely not what I mean. These are light, but sturdy. They don’t crumble apart, so are not dry. Hot biscuits with butter and honey…mmmmmmmmmm.
Plenty of southern biscuits are light and/or flaky. Every good cook here has his or her own preference, so you’re likely to get all kinds of different biscuits throughout the South.
I have won a couple awards with my ground pork gravy over red potatoes recipe. The gravy is equally good over biscuits. Since I went on my diet about a year ago, I haven’t been able to enjoy it. Might just have to make some anyway. ’
This thread has flung a craving on me.
We had a late breakfast this morning (but barely morning 
) of homemade B&G that I cooked and eggs to order (the Fella as short order cook). All washed down with coffee for us and milk for the boys.
I make B&G every couple of months. I like to use sage sausage and add some bacon grease for extra flavor. Plus LOTS of fresh black pepper. Mmmmmmmmm. Might have to go to the store tomorrow!
Brown the pork until it is near crispy, The browner the meat, the more flavor. Remove meat from pan, in remaining grease, add flour, stir in pan and brown flour until very brown, the more brown it is the more flavor. But DONT burn it. Then add milk and simmer until slightly thickened, then add browned meat, stir constantly till slightly thickened.
Then salt and pepper to taste.