Why Most of America is Terrible at Making Biscuits

[musicgeek]

If a biscuit or pancake recipe uses baking powder (which contains both the acid and base) for leavening, you probably won't notice much of a difference. If there's a mixture of baking powder and a significant amount of baking soda, the milk/buttermilk thing can make a big difference - of course, if the recipe specifies either milk or buttermilk, you don't need to be concerned about it beyond personal preference.

[ganzfeld]

True. The trick I learned when I was very little was to add a tiny bit of vinegar. (I don't even remember how old I was when I started using this recipe. About six or seven.) But I learned very quickly to skip that step because I was hungry. These days I usually mix in a bit of plain yogurt with the milk but it's mostly for flavor. I don't even remember the last time I had buttermilk. (Probably at my grampa's cause he used to drink it. And use it to cook.)

[erwins]

The southern flour vs northern is not the same as all purpose vs cake flour. The White Lily flour I have is all purpose flour. It is AP flour made from soft wheat, which is the thing you can't get up north. Subbing cake flour is not going to be the same thing, or a fair test.

I'll report back when I've made my regular recipe. Maybe I can do some of each, like beach did. My recipe makes tasty, soft, but dense biscuits ordinarily.

[Beachlife!]

I plan to do another test in the morning, this time using my regular recipe.

[Beachlife!]

Second experiment is complete leaving no doubt in my mind that its all about matching the recipe to the flour. I used a recipe entitled 'All Purpose Biscuits' with both flours. The All purpose flour biscuits were exceptional. The Southern Biscuit flour biscuits were a mess.

The amount of fat and milk is dramatically different between the 2 recipes. Southern flour clearly needs less of each while all purpose flour needs more.

In both cases, the biscuits made with the 'matching' recipe were exceptional. Those made with the 'unmatched' recipe were disasters. Different types of disasters, but disasters.

[ASL]

I feel like there’s a gag along those lines. Involving a character performing an unfamiliar task and being shocked—shocked I tell you—to discover that all they had to do was follow the directions printed on the packaging.

Or maybe I’m just channeling the events of my own life into fiction again.

[GenYus234]

Said disaster must be filmed with exaggerated frustration, preferably in black and white.

[iskinner]

Originally Posted by Beachlife!

In both cases, the biscuits made with the 'matching' recipe were exceptional.

The obvious follow on experiment is to make batches with the two types of flours using the appropriate recipe for each. Then see if one is noticeable better then the other even with their 'matching' recipe.

[Beachlife!]

Yes, you are correct. That is what I plan to do. Probably Friday morning.

I have to give myself a couple days to work through the biscuits, though in each experiment, half of the biscuits weren't really very edible.

[ASL]

Also consider a series of double blind experiments.

[iskinner]

I'm not sure what your meal planning looks like, Beachlife. But inedible biscuits, can often be used as a decent thickener in certain stews and/or soups as well as other things as long the actually flavor is not completely unpalatable.

[Beachlife!]

I considered going double blind, but wasn't sure how to pull it off alone in my kitchen. Up until now, it hasn't really made a difference as the recipes just weren't suitable for the 'wrong' flour. This was apparent in both cases as soon as I mixed the milk in.

[ASL]

Depending on whether or not you can distinguish one kind of flour from the other by visual inspection, I would recommend some kind of a turntable with a blindfold and a video camera. Start recording, don the blindfold, spin the turntable, and then do the deed (sans blindfold) and only see which batch you selected later. Or something like that. You could also do it after mixing the dough (again, assuming you can’t distinguish visually).

Of course I’m sure we’re just having a bit of back and forth. I wouldn’t actually expect you to go to some much trouble over something so trivial.

But if you did, you’d be super cool and totally awesome.

[ganzfeld]

The fundamental flaw in the experimental method is that I am not there to eat the results.

[Beachlife!]

Ganz, I'm not going to lie, the biscuits made with with each of the correct recipes were amazing both as a breakfast sandwich and with honey/jam.

ASL, I can totally tell the difference in flours. The Southern Biscuit flour is so much finer grained that it is obvious which one it is even after the dough has been made.

One of the things I have done, right or wrong, is to keep any variables the same between the two experiments. I completed each step first with the all purpose biscuits in both experiments. They also maintained the same side of the oven in both experiments. Since each type of flour won one experiment, I don't think order of preparation or side of the oven played a role.

I think my next step is to have a friend join me. We can work together to ensure no bias when completing the third experiment and then turn the result over to a third party for judging.

[thorny locust]

Originally Posted by Beachlife!

I think my next step is to have a friend join me. We can work together to ensure no bias when completing the third experiment and then turn the result over to a third party for judging.

I think it is very unfortunate that you live so far away from me.


(I am, however, going to take a wild guess, based on a lot of impromptu taste tests of strawberries, tomatoes, etc.: while it's possible that everyone will agree that the awful biscuits are awful, I strongly suspect that if you have multiple taste testers there will be disagreement about which of the good biscuits are better.)

[Beachlife!]

Regarding the awful biscuits, the all purpose awful biscuits were hockey pucks. The SB awful biscuits were kind of like drop biscuits. They would be usable with stew or as shortcakes with fruit and cool whip on top.

[RichardM]

Originally Posted by Beachlife!

Regarding the awful biscuits, the all purpose awful biscuits were hockey pucks.

Hence the joke about why northerners play hockey.

[DawnStorm]

Originally Posted by Beachlife!

I think my next step is to have a friend join me. We can work together to ensure no bias when completing the third experiment and then turn the result over to a third party for judging.

Sounds like Snopes get-together time for your area.

[GenYus234]

Originally Posted by Beachlife!

I considered going double blind, but wasn't sure how to pull it off alone in my kitchen.

Bird Box biscuit challange!