Buttermilk Biscuits

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JOYCE PORTER'S PERFECT BUTTERMILK BISCUITS

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups sifted plain flour      1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt             1/4 teaspoon baking soda
5 tablespoons lard             1 cup buttermilk

Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and soda; cut in lard till mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add buttermilk, all at once, and stir till dough follows fork around bowl.  Turn out and knead 1/2 minute.  Roll 3/8 inch thick;  brush with melted fat or salad oil;  fold over and cut double biscuits.  Bake on un-greased cookie sheet in very hot oven 450 degrees 12 to 15 minutes.

YIELD: 2 dozen

NOTE:  This is the biscuit recipe that Joyce Porter aka "Tweet" modified by using real hog lard.  My bride later informed me after web publishing that this recipe was from one of her early cookbooks but can't remember which one.  These biscuits will bake up golden brown and will absolutely melt in your mouth.  My Mama calls them "pulley biscuits" because you can pull them apart without them crumbling all over the place.  This is the biscuit that will allow you to "sop" up gravies of all types like: sawmill, red eye and Po Boy gravy, better known as Hoover gravy; not to mention black molasses mixed with real churned and printed butter and eat milk and sweeten coffee soaked dunking biscuits and simply bore a hole into the biscuit with your finger and add your favorite jelly, jam or molasses......this technique might have predated the jelly and cream filled pastry! 

Bill aka  Mickey Porter February 15, 1999 and web published on 08-21-08

Above pix taken January 2002 of my brides homemade buttermilk biscuits using real lard instead of Crisco or other types of shortening.  They tasted just as good as they look.  PS:  She did use a biscuit cutter to get them that round and uniform in size.  Most of the "ole timers" simply got a piece of dough from the main dough ball and choked a piece off the size they wanted and rolled it in the palm of the hand, placed the dough ball onto the baking pan and flattened the biscuit out with the back of the hand/knuckles.  My grandma Coley, my Mother and my bride's Mom used that technique and their biscuits were great tasting and looking too!  Pix below of Joyce aka my "bride" in 1978.  She is still the love of my life!