Saturday, July 30, 2005

Biscuit(s)

It always drove me crazy that my mother and grandmother said "biscuit" instead of "biscuits".
"What did you have good for supper?" Grammie Boone would ask my mother.
"Well, John caught a mess of trout, so we had those, potatoes, peas from the garden, and I made biscuit." Aaaaarrrgh! It was like fingernails on a chalkboard! (Too bad I can't find someone who'll pay me for being petty...)

At any rate, the recipe we use in our household is from an old National Grange Cookbook. This is often Sunday night fare for us--especially if there is any honey or, better yet, molasses on hand. Ironically to my mother and grandmother who swore by Bakewell Cream, this baking powder recipe is somewhat of an anomaly. We love it.

Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg, beaten
2/3 cup milk

Sift dry ingredients together. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add egg and milk. Knead. Roll until 3/4-inch thick, cut with biscuit cutter. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake in 450-degree oven for 10 to 14 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

4 comments:

andalucy said...

Hi ml,

I'm so glad I'm not the only petty one around here. Now that I think of it, (now that you brought it up)the biscuit plural bugs me too. And yet I use it.

How about the "s'mores" vs. "shmores"? How do you guys say it?

Thanks for the biscuit recipe. I'll post mine for buttermilk yeast biscuits--they're kind of a cross between yeast rolls and biscuits. Pretty yummy, actually.

(Lindsay)

a man from Saipan said...

Thank you forever.

I will try this and think of the Conners as I eat. All the good memories I fail to forget.

Anonymous said...

Ahh Justin, I agree. The biscuits shall live on forever and the recipe shall be passed from my generation down hundreds of generations.

This is what bugs me about biscuits: B-I-S-C-U-I-T. Is that even close to how you say it?!! It must be a French word since you only pronounce about half of it. ;)

I say s'mores.

Anonymous said...

The word biscuit is from the Latin biscoctus which means baked twice. A very thin dry cake that is baked and pottery that is baked but not glazed.
The readon that American and British have different meanings is that American English is known as 'colonial English' and the British 'Recieved English'.
Unfortunately or not for you Marilou your mother may have been pronouncing it correctly.

Just a thought.
Aletha