Biscuit of the Gods

Published on Wednesday, April 4, 2007, by James Norton / Edit Post

This is not typically a forum for recipe troubleshooting, but I just had the best biscuit of my short life thanks to a recipe printed in the May edition of Fine Cooking. Please keep in mind that I am a Northerner, and biscuits are not of my culinary heritage in the same way that beer, cheese, and bratwurst are; I don’t profess to be a Revered Biscuit Grandmaster. But I did once live with a guy from Virginia who made good drop biscuits with the casual frequency of a Brooklynite slicing and toasting a bagel.

The crux of the recipe is using cold butter sliced into quarter-inch pieces, which are then distributed through the flour dough by brief and gentle folding and stirring.

Why so great?

1. Platonic ideal of biscuit. Golden brown, slightly irregular bumpy exterior; dark brown, slightly harder bottom.

2. Buttery. Beautiful rich, full buttery taste to these, even though each biscuit contains less than a tablespoon of butter. All right, maybe “even though” isn’t the right phrase, but trust me: You get your money’s worth with your butter allowance when you bake these suckers up.

3. Flaky. In the old-school manner. They just neatly twist in half, too, making for a fantastic breakfast sandwich.

4. Delicious. So delicious.

You can’t get the recipe online, so this may be one of those times when purchasing the magazine makes a lot of sense. As far as I’m concerned, Fine Cooking and Saveur have proved their worth this year. Verdict’s still out on Gourmet and the National Culinary Review. Get with the program, guys.

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POST A COMMENT |10 Comments

COMMENT

  • Dixeday2: that was Spatlese, not me. I have no idea whats wrong with a Brooklynite toasting a bagel (and these days, aren't most Brooklynites transplants from Ohio et al., anyway?).

  • I have that issue - there are some other great recipes in there as well so it's totally worth buying it.

  • I am running out right now to get this ish. Thanks for the heads up. Biscuits, AKA Bickies, are my favorite food in the world next to coffee.

  • Saveur magazine's recipes taste a LOT better than Gourmet(where they are trying too hard to be on trend). Saveur's approach ... to go in to the area, get recipes/50 years old in context with other dishes makes more sense too. I like the travel sections of Gourmet but their test kitchen must be staffed by 101 cooks who started last year.

  • the chowhound police long ago determined that posting a recipe formula, though not the text description, did not violate any copyright laws.

    please feel free to go ahead and post the list of ingredients and your paraphrase of the instructions

  • Renz--I don't get it. What's wrong with a Brooklynite toasting a bagel? I've been that very thing, and no one recoiled in horror at the sight.

  • Here's a link to a buttermilk biscuit recipe by the same author, the bread guru and monk, Peter Reinhart,
    http://www.recipelink.com/cookbooks/1999/1580080030_2.html

  • Just post it, it's not like the Fine Cooking police are gonna come find you.

  • Offtopic, but a Brooklynite toasting a bagel?? Ewww....

  • Why can't you guys share the recipe with us (ie., "adapt" it)?