# Flour, fat, and milk **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 18, 2012, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flour-fat-and-milk/613264 "2012-02-18T20:04:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flour-fat-and-milk/613264/1 "2012-02-18T20:04:37Z")
The basic ingredients for biscuits _and_ gravy! I make a reasonable amount of gravy. It always turns out well. Biscuits? Well… A bit of a disaster about 20 years ago. My flour was old, so they tasted a bit ‘musty’. And I accidentally got too much salt in the gravy, to boot. Basically inedible. To make matters worse, my best **fiend** was hanging out at my place so my failure was not private. I never got to making biscuits from scratch since then. Until today. Today I made creamed chipped beef gravy (flour, fat [butter], milk, chipped beef, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper). And biscuits (flour, fat [shortening], milk, baking powder, salt). I cut the biscuits with a Coca-Cola glass. And you know what? The biscuits turned out light and flaky and tasty. Of course there’s one malformed one mashed together with the cuttings. SO thinks it’s cool. One-and-a-half biscuits each later, we’re both stuffed. (Should have had one each, and a fried egg apiece.) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flour-fat-and-milk/613264/2 "2012-02-18T20:24:16Z")
Biscuits and gravy is the food of the gods, whether made with sausage, burger, chipped beef, whatever. See my biscuit thread downstream for my recent efforts to achieve perfect biscuitry. I highly recommend ordering a bag of White Lily self-rising flour through Amazon. It’s made from soft winter wheat so has lower protein content, and the result is fall-apart biscuity goodness. As an alternative, use half all-purpose and half cake flour. Also, experiment with butter or Crisco (or combo), and buttermilk/cream/milk combos. Some folks add baking soda to buttermilk biscuits, but it’s really not necessary (baking powder contains baking soda) and adds an off-taste. For tougher biscuits (ones that brown on the sides and top and work well for sandwiches), place about an inch apart on a baking sheet. For softer, fluffier biscuits (top/bottom brown only), snuggle them up so they are touching each other. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flour-fat-and-milk/613264/3 "2012-02-18T21:04:14Z")
I wish I had some boysenberry jam. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flour-fat-and-milk/613264/4 "2012-02-18T22:27:59Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Also, experiment with butter or Crisco (or combo), And leaf lard. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flour-fat-and-milk/613264/5 "2012-02-18T22:45:01Z")
Now I’m going to make biscuits. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flour-fat-and-milk/613264/6 "2012-02-18T23:15:14Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > Now I’m going to make biscuits. Now eating said biscuits. Thanks for posting this, even though I didn’t make the gravy. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flour-fat-and-milk/613264/7 "2012-02-18T23:18:21Z")
🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flour-fat-and-milk/613264/8 "2012-02-18T23:26:25Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I wish I had some boysenberry jam. So you’re a Citizens for Boysenberry Jam fan? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flour-fat-and-milk/613264/9 "2012-02-18T23:35:27Z")
I had to google that. I’ve never heard the song. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2012, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flour-fat-and-milk/613264/10 "2012-02-19T00:40:09Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I had to google that. I’ve never heard the song. _Punky’s Dilemma_ is a _really_ old S&G song. Came out in the early 60s on the Bookends album, which had some (for them) groundbreaking stuff. For some reason, I missed that this was your thread. And here I am lecturing you about making biscuits. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2012, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flour-fat-and-milk/613264/11 "2012-02-19T03:05:09Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > _Punky’s Dilemma_ is a _really_ old S&G song. Came out in the early 60s on the Bookends album, which had some (for them) groundbreaking stuff. > > For some reason, I missed that this was your thread. And here I am lecturing you about making biscuits. :smack: Make that _late_ 60s. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flour-fat-and-milk/613264/12 "2012-02-19T03:13:26Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Biscuits and gravy is the food of the gods, whether made with sausage, burger, chipped beef, whatever. See my biscuit thread downstream for my recent efforts to achieve perfect biscuitry. I highly recommend ordering a bag of White Lily self-rising flour through Amazon. It’s made from soft winter wheat so has lower protein content, and the result is fall-apart biscuity goodness. As an alternative, use half all-purpose and half cake flour. Also, experiment with butter or Crisco (or combo), and buttermilk/cream/milk combos. Some folks add baking soda to buttermilk biscuits, but it’s really not necessary (baking powder contains baking soda) and adds an off-taste. I notice that you have been experimenting with biscuits lately. On a beach trip once, when we ran out of buttermilk, I made a batch with coconut milk. They were delicious. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2012, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flour-fat-and-milk/613264/13 "2012-02-19T03:17:33Z")
And the best part of biscuits is that they are idiot-proof, which I demonstrated with my first attempt about a year back. Lacked a couple of the fixins’, they were ugly as hell, but were so tasty! ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2012, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flour-fat-and-milk/613264/14 "2012-02-19T22:01:13Z")
biscuits are food perfection. I do wish we had White Lily flour around here; I was able to get my hands on some a few years back and it was lovely, lovely stuff. It was not lovely enough, however, to pay $49 for 20lbs of the stuff on Amazon. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flour-fat-and-milk/613264/15 "2012-02-20T04:17:58Z")
Well, now I’ve told the kid I’m going to make them for dinner with hamburger patties, mushrooms & onions. Though, being kiwi, I’m calling them scones and tossing a few green herbs into the dough. I hope you’re all happy! We will be. ETA: [stealth brag]Made from scratch hamburger patties [/stealth brag]