Southern cooks: an appeal to your baking mastery

Cafe Society
1

Okay, so you don’t have to be Southern…but few Yankees are any good at making great biscuits. I’m trying to be one of them…hence my question.

I was inspired to learn to make decent biscuits after my mom taught my wife the secret of the sausage gravy. Unfortunately, my mom can’t make biscuits for shit, so we’re on our own there. Also, I received a few seasons of Good Eats on DVD for Christmas, and the episode “The Dough Also Rises” really made me determined to do this. The recipe I’ve settled on is mostly the same as Alton Brown’s, and it works GREAT. Finally, I’m making light, exceptionally fluffy biscuits that aren’t little dry hockey pucks.

My question, however, concerns the liquid content in the recipe I’m using. AB’s recipe uses 1 cup of buttermilk to 2 cups of flour and 2 oz of shortening. This buttermilk/flour ratio is definitely higher than most other recipes I’ve seen, which would generally use 3/4 or even 2/3 a cup of buttermilk. If getting the dough to separate from the sides of the bowl is all I’m after, I could surely use a little less. But what would the effect of that be? Would they rise more or less? Would they be drier in texture?

In the show, AB says something about a loose, wet dough being a good thing. And I’ve really come to believe almost everything that comes out of the man’s mouth. Of course, I could just whip up a batch using less liquid to see what happens. But I don’t care to bother if someone here can tell me why it won’t be any better.

In short, what is the effect of more or less buttermilk in a biscuit recipe? Should I be using as much or as little liquid as I can get away with?

2

The texture wouldn’t be the same, and my guess is that they wouldn’t rise quite as much.

In general, a wet dough is a good thing. You tend to see dryer doughs because they’re easier to work with and less messy. There’s a lot of people out there who wil trade taste for less cleanup. Crazy world, isn’t it?

3

Part of the problem is that there are two different kinds of biscuits, with doughs that have different consistencies: “drop” biscuits, in which the dough is plopped on the baking sheet by big spoonfuls and flattens while baking (think Red Lobster’s evil garlic-cheese biscuits); these use a wetter dough. The rolled-out, cut-out kind (such as McD’s or Hardee’s) would have a drier dough to be easier to work with. I don’t know which kind AB was making, so I have no judgements to make there, but that might account for the difference.

4

Why would you want to change anything?
“Cooking is art, baking is science.”

5

The biscuit recipe I make at work is almost that wet. It has .75 cups of buttermilk to 1.75 cups of flour. And I think it compensates for that by using butter instead of shortening, and in an even higher proportion that what the OP gave.

1.75 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2-1/2 ounces butter(5 tablespoons)
3/4 cup buttermilk

I really like the biscuits I make from this, especially with a good sausage gravy, or hot out of the oven, with butter or good jam.

6

And the firmer doughs DO make a better breakfast sandwich base, not so breakable.

7

What is this “shortening” to which you are referring? Would that be anything like lard? Are you mixing it in or are you cutting it in? Also, the colder your butter milk is, the better. Put ice in it while you cut the lard into the flour, then slowly add the buttermilk to the dough to make it a little more pliable. Don’t make it too wet. I like to use a wide-mouth mason jar to cut big, cathead biscuits.

8

These are cut biscuits I’m trying to make…traditional, Southern, make-a-sandwich or pour-gravy-on-them biscuits. The Good Eats episode focused on just that type, with some mention of shortcake and scones.

And the science is why I love it, and why I care that my chosen recipe seems different than others I’ve seen. Noticing anomalies and understanding the reasons is the heart of science. It was really just curiosity about the difference, not a desire to change anything.

I’m actually using half butter/half vegetable shortening, to balance better texture (shortening) with better flavor (butter). And all the fats are well chilled, cut in quickly with a pastry blender or by hand, whichever I feel like that day. The buttermilk is ice cold when I mix it in. I’m always very careful to keep the fats from melting, and the dough from being overworked.

I’ve go no objection to lard, as it’s the more traditional fat to use. And in these days of trans-fat-phobia, it may be better than vegetable shortening. I just don’t keep any around. AB said in the biscuit episode that while lard gives the tender-est texture, it can throw the flavor of baked goods off a little. But that may be thrown off in a direction some people prefer.

Okay, so it seems the wetter-than-expected dough is giving me the extra light texture. That’s what I expected…but it’s good to confirm. The dough is very, very sticky, and I can see why some people would hate to work with it that way. But I’m willing to handle it.

FYI, here’s the ingredient list for the recipe I’m using. One note…the use of soft, low-protein flour seems to have the biggest impact compared to the way I used to do it. Much lighter and better rising. The texture of the finished biscuits is pretty soft and light, so they may not make a good sandwich. If I want to pile on some bacon, egg, and cheese, I’ll just reduce the buttermilk a little.

2 cups soft flour (like White Lily)
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp shortening
2 Tbsp butter
1 cup buttermilk

Thanks to all for helping me out, especially Athena for the clear and direct advice.