Drop Biscuits – And How Your Mama Did It Just Right
This is a recipe that is always considered a treat at my house, met with the same zeal as a dessert even though it is just a bread. A variation on my Mama’s hoe cake, she often mixed up the same batter and made drop biscuits instead. When I first served hoe cake to my in laws, hot from the oven with generous helpings of homemade apple butter, they declared it a hit. They loved the crispy outer layer and soft as clouds biscuit inside. But the next day when I made them drop biscuits (the same recipe, prepared so that there is more of the crispy part), they assured me that the drop biscuits with apple butter were their new favorite.
Hoe cake recipes vary widely. A lot of people make it with corn meal or use more traditional methods of preparation (actually cooking it on a hoe). Every now and then a reader will respond to a recipe telling me it just isn’t like their mother’s. Sometimes they will go so far as to tell me I am doing something flat out wrong because the recipe varies in some way from how their Mama did it. It’s these comments that stand out the most to me because my heart just aches for the folks that say them. I understand there is a lot more to what they are saying than ingredients and preparation methods.
“It’s not like Mama’s” is not so much about missing the food as it is missing the person.
I feel the same way even though I am fortunate enough to still have my mother with me. She was the one who taught me how to cook and as a result, I cook just exactly like she does. Anyone could taste a dish made by Mama next to one of mine and not be able to tell a bit of difference. Still, my cooking to me just isn’t Mama’s.
I want to make one thing as clear as possible : How your Mama made it is the right way. No one will ever cook for you like your Mama did and I’m surely not here to try. But on the same token, Southern Plate is a singular website run by a singular person and as a result, when I bring you a recipe I’m going to bring it to you how My Mama made it, which is the only right way for me.
I know how much a Mama can mean to a person and I hope I can help bring back some of those memories from time to time, maybe by telling you a little of my childhood or my mother’s childhood that reminds you of your own in some way. I hope when this happens that it brings a smile to your face and most importantly, I hope when you make a recipe of one of yours or my loved ones, that it helps to bring a bit of their spirit into your kitchen again.
Your Mama will always be a better cook than you, me, Martha or Julia. There was never any competition.
At the end of this post in the comments, I’d really like for you to share any memories you’d like about your mamas and how they cooked for you. Tell me about your Mama’s heart, her sense of humor, lessons she taught, or about how good it made you feel when she wrapped her arms around you.
Most of all, tell me how your Mama did it just right.
For this, you’ll need: Self rising flour, vegetable shortening, and milk.
Isn’t it amazing how all of the best Southern recipes have the fewest and most simple of ingredients?
Just think about all of the food channels and fancy cookbooks touting “quick and easy” that have ingredient lists a mile long!
All we need to do is look to the old days when folks used what they had on hand.
If you’d like to know how to make your own self rising flour, just visit my Frequently Asked Questions page.
Now take your ugliest baking sheet,one with a bit of a lip around the edges,and pour some vegetable oil on it.
You just need enough to coat the bottom.
You know that really ugly baking sheet you have that you make sure you don’t use when company comes? That is the one we want for this. Mine is so old and ugly I covered it in foil so you wouldn’t see! Bless it’s little heart, its a workhorse of a pan though! I normally do not cover my pan in foil so don’t feel that you have to.
Place that baking pan in your oven while it preheats to get the oil good and hot.
Measure your flour into a bowl.
Add your shortening.
Cut your shortening into the flour by repeatedly pressing down with a fork and stirring it up a bit as you do so.
I’ve mentioned before that you can buy a fancy pastry cutter for this but I find a long tined fork works just as well and I don’t have one more thing to keep up with. Simple is better here at Bountiful.
It’ll look like this when you are done.
Now pour in your milk.
I used the very last bit of milk I had for these drop biscuits! Been so busy lately I haven’t had time to get groceries.
Stir it up until you have a batter that is just a little softer than regular biscuit batter.
It will be lumpy but that is perfectly fine so don’t go frettin’ over it.
Katy calls these “grumpy biscuits” because of how they look when baked.
She sure does love to eat them though!
Drop globs by large spoonful onto heated baking sheet.
The oil should be hot enough to sizzle a little bit when you add the batter.
Now tilt your pan a bit until some of the heated oil pools in the corner and spoon a bit of that oil over each biscuit.
This will get us nice and crunchy tops!
Here are our drop biscuits all ready to go.
These are pretty good sized ones and this recipe ended up making about eight of them.
If you make them a little smaller you could get a dozen.
Bake at 425 until golden brown, 10-15 minutes.
Serve warm with butter, jelly, or homemade apple butter! YUM!
Ingredients
- 2 cups self rising flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425. Pour a thin layer of oil to cover the bottom of a large baking pan and place in oven to heat.
- Cut shortening into flour well. Pour milk in and stir until wet – add a little more milk if needed.
- Drop by large spoonfuls onto well heated pan and spoon a bit of hot oil over each one.
- Bake for ten to fifteen minutes or until browned.
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Happiness is like potato salad,
when shared with others – it becomes a picnic!
Submitted by Southern Plate reader, Kathi.
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Now,~settles in and leans forward with interest~ tell me bout yer Mama! Can’t wait to read! As always, feel free to talk amongst yourselves as well. If you’d like to reply to someone else’s comment, just click “reply” beneath what they wrote.
Gratefully,
Christy 
Posted by Christy Jordan
on Aug 15 2009. Filed under Breads.
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My response perhaps won’t be like the others you have received. My mother was not much of a cook, nor was she affectionate and loving. She had a hard life, and did the best she could with what she had at the time, which was not a lot. She didn’t have the ability to “see” anything good in her circumstances. But I have to tell you, that finding your site is like finding a MOM, and I know I am much older than you, but it is such a blessing to read about your life, and get to “share” your recipes and insights. It is like having a loving Mom wrap her arms around me and say, “Come on in, and sit a spell. Have a glass of tea. Now, what are you fixin’ for dinner tonight?” I’m really glad you are here. Kathleen
amen
My mama made something very similar and she always called it “Lazy Bread”. I guess that came from them not being rolled and cut, but just plopped on the pan. Delish!
These are very similar to my mama’s biscuits. She used the well in the middle of the flour technique with oil and whatever kind of milk she had on hand. I still make this for my children. I don’t like the fancy cookin’ that is popular these days. I am just a southern girl that likes simple southern cookin’, too. I hope one day my children look at my meals with affection.
Thanks for sharing your life with us
Cheryl
Hi There !!
As a single dad, i have always been searching for good food for the family.. Cooking never was my calling, but.. I must say, what i have done, is now so much easier because of you… My last one soon leaves for college, so I have been introducing her to my “stash” of recipe’s. and where I got them.. from the back of boxes to Emeril and to then to you, Christy. WOW.. you have really made feeding a family simple, good tasting and hardy.. for this i thank you.
Ok.. on to the drop biscuits, you make them the way my granny and mom used to make them.. company gets real “nosey” when they see me pour oil on a pan.. such great biscuits they are.. and the HOE CAKE? My granny used to make it and serve it with homemade maple syrup. we went nuts for this.
Later i have learned to improvise and want to share one with you.. make your drop biscuits, place them on the hot pan.. then wet your thumb, and press into the center of each, making a dimple, fill this with, jalapeno cheese, or blackberry jam, or marmalade. Just a drop is all it takes. Then wet your fingers and pull the top of the biscuit back over the filling.. bake as normal… then stand back.. Hope your folks enjoy as much as we have.. God Bless.. Jim
Hmmm. Never thought of that. Gonna have to try it next time. Yum!
Wow Jim – I’m doing that tonight.
Thank you so much!
My Dad is from Lincoln, Alabama and he grew up there on a farm. His family always called these drop biscuits “cat heads”. Has anyone else heard them called that?
Oh, my yes. From my Daddy. Haven’t though for years.
Hey Cheryl, my grandma use to make what she called “cat head buscuits” in her cast iron skillet. I always assumed it was because they were as big as a cat’s head. They were really big & delicious.
you assumed correctly
Oh yes!!!!!! I always thought my dad just made up this word for moms biscuts.
Christy,
I too had to wait until I stopped crying to write this, my mom died 11 years ago and she too was the family biscuit maker, I think all shouthern family’s have one, my Aunt Gail always had to Fry up the county ham and I had the mac and cheese when I go older. Man I really do miss those days. My grandmother is gone too. Like others on this site my mom had a bowl of flour, never washed it, dug a hole in the middle a hand of shortin, her hand and a cup of milk. And you know the rest. She never rolled them at all, they were pinched and that is the one thing I do wish I would have learned before she passed, mine are good but not like hers and much more compicated.
Teresa
That is exactly how my grandmother made her biscuits! They were delicious.
As I’ve siad before Christy you are wise beyond your years as the following statement you made above will attest to:
“It’s not like Mama’s” is not so much about missing the food as it is missing the person.
My mom didn’t cook that much, as she worked long hours as a single mom. But when she did cook, it was wonderful. And her biscuits were the best I’ve ever tasted. She used the same ingredients as above, just “eyed” the quantities and patted/cut them out. My favourite part was that at the end she would always use the scraps to form a J. It made me feel so special. Thanks for this post and the recipe. You seem to be a very gracious person.
Christy,
I am from Alabama and love that soouthern cooking. My Mother was a wonderful cook. She could cook anything and never use a recipe. She would cooko fried chicken and it would almost melt in your mouth. During the holidays she would make cakes,pies of all kinds. My favorite was a peppermint cake. She make her on frosting with powder sugar anad would frost her cake , the crush peppermint candy and sprinkle on the cake. the next day she would make holes in the cake and squeeze fresh orange juice on it.
She would do this several days and then wrap the cake in cheese cloth for Christmas day when we would have lots of company from her family and my father’s family. My dad would tell her she could take a pan full of rocks and cook them and make great food from them ( so to speak). She is cooking for Jesus now and I know he is Loving every minute of it.
( Love you Mother and Daddy).
I have loved and enjoyed all of the Southern Plate posts since I found you Christy, but this one tugged at my heartstrings and I had to (like the previous poster) wait to stop crying to reply. I lost my mom three years ago and miss her every day. she was an excellent cook and I was lucky enough to learn a few of her “specialties” before she died. On my last birthday with her, in spite of being sick with cancer, she made me a big pan of chicken and yellow rice (one of my favorites) and nothing will ever match or even come close to being how good it was, not because it was in a four-star restaurant or made with exotic ingredients, but because I know what an effort it was for her in her state to make it for me. well shoot, so much for not crying…..
Sherry, I share your pain today, because my sweet mom is gone too, and she was just like yours. She suffered, not from cancer, but from osteoporosis, and her little spine was just crumbling. She would get in the kitchen and make buttermilk cornbread and a big pot of pinto beans, which we all loved. It was so hard for her to get around, but she would mix it and then someone would carry it to the oven for her. She had to use a walker to get around, so she couldn’t carry it, but boy, she sure could make a goooood pan of cornbread. I can never match it. All her life she could make the simplest food taste so wonderful. I figure it was all the love she put into it. She made the best chocolate and coconut cream pies I ever ate. And a funny story: Our cousin was staying with us for the summer, and he was a teenage boy who was hungry all the time. Mom always cooked liver and onions once every couple of weeks. My brother and I actually liked liver, but even if we hadn’t, we would have had to eat it anyway, because picky eaters weren’t catered to in our household. Well, my cousin ate it like he would never get enough, and when supper was over, he said, “Aunt Cordie, that was the best steak I ever ate!” My brother fell out of his chair laughing and Mom told him to just be quiet. If he thinks it is steak, just let him go on thinking it. So you know she was a good cook if she could make LIVER taste like steak. You know that we never get over missing our dear moms and dads when they are gone, so I hope everyone who still has theirs calls them today or hugs them today if they are near enough, because if you don’t you will sure wish you had done it more when they are gone. Well, shoot, now I’M crying, Sherry!
I wanted to reply to every comment-great stuff ya’ll. My Mom grew up in a difficult situation and her Mom didn’t do much to feed the 6 kids and when she did it was with little effort and poor results. When my Mom left home and had her own kitchen she became a great cook and fed us wonderful meals with homemade bread and desserts daily. She still has friends in to eat every week. She loves to cook for the family when we can make it home. To my Mom love is food and lots of it.
My mom is a wonderful cook, as were both of my grandmas. They all have their specialties, too. I learned some things from each of them and have “specialties” of my own now. I remember talking to my Grandma Raabe about how to do certain things. She would answer, “Oh, you take a little of such and such . . .” She would then smile and say, “I know. That’s frustrating. I used to feel the same way when I’d ask my mother or grandmother.” She ended up measuring out how much she used the next time she made a certain dish so that I would have a better idea. I have several pages of notes and recipes that she wrote down for me.
Using half that recipe, you can use a 12 hole Muffin pan and make 8 to 12 small biscuits that cooks in 10-12 minutes and is a perfect size for sausage patties. I spray a short shot of oil in each hole first.
My mom and I were separated before I was 2 years old…but we reunited when I was 10…I never lived with her for more than a week at a time, but I will always remember her cooking. When I think of her I have to think of the kitchen because that was where she seemed to spend her time. She made the best fried pork chops with smothered potatoes and onions…and she could take turkey legs, bake them with some onion and God knows what else, and make them fit for royalty! And I hated turkey legs!!! LOL When my mom laughed it seemed like laughter would break out all over the room….some say I look a lot like her, and I guess I see some resemblance, but there will never be anyone to take her place. Thank you for making me stop, reflect, and enjoy some memories that brought a smile to my face today!
I love your site, it has given me many a laugh and quite a fvew tears from laughing so hard. My mama used to use a big bowl with flour in it, she never washed it, just used it over and over again. Her biscuits were my dad’s favorite (he made his “poor man’s desert with them which consisted of her biscuits, coffee and sugar). He passed away 9 years ago and she hasn’t made her biscuits since. I just cannot get used to frozen or canned biscuits. The few times I have tried to make homemade biscuits, you could have used them for rocks or they bounced like a ball. I had given up ever making biscuits that were edible, but will try your recipe and see how it goes. Thanks again and keep up the good work.
Yes, ma’am, this is how my mama makes biscuits! It’s kind of a joke in our family – my sisters say that Mother fixes homemade biscuits like these pretty much only when my family is in town (we live in Texas while everyone else lives in Mississippi) and only because my New York husband needs them! (He does! And he LOVES her cooking! Bless his heart, he was deprived growing up, and Mother is just doing her part to help)
Otherwise, she makes “Wop” biscuits. Those are the ones in cans that you “wop” on the counter to open.
She is a wonderful cook – and a wonderful Mom/Mamaw/sister/neighbor (she feeds them, too!) and everything else. We are blessed girls to have her as a Mother and our example to follow.
we call ‘em whopem biscuits !
These biscuits were on the table at about every meal. I grew up on a farm in Iowa, so we always had fresh fruits/veggies, thanks to my momma who worked very hard picking & canning to make sure of this. My mother worked in DesMoines, came home Fri. nite, got up at sometimes 4/4:30 am Sat. to go to the garden, the berry patches, & start her canning. She would leave again late Sun evening. momma never measured anything. funny how our momma’s always knew “just” the right amounts, huh??? LOL…My mother was a beautiful Christian lady, who worked also very hard to instill in my sister & I morals, intigrity, & self discipline..she has gone on to be with the Lord, but, I was one very lucky lil’ girl to have been dealt the momma I was..She also used to add fruit to the batter..this was our dessert…
This post makes me cry. I lost my dear Mama last year and my world has never been the same. She was THE best southern cook! I can remember standing in a chair next to the stove learning how to cook scrambled eggs and so many days of helping with supper. Back then I didn’t appreciate the kitchen chores that I now cherish as memories. When I moved out [and away] I could hardly afford my phone bills from calling Mama to ask how to cook something or just for reassurance that I’d done it right. Sadly, the one thing I never mastered were her biscuits. I love and miss you Mama.
Gale, i don’t know how many years it took me to quit dialing mama’s number just from habit. it’s been 24 years and i miss her everyday. On a lighter note, my youngest just got married, I was expecting her when Mama passed. She facebooked me a picture of a pot roast to be sure it wasn’t freezer burned. Mama would have laughed over that too.
How funny. FB’ing a frozen roast. Thanks for the laugh. The hard thing is when I think of something or see a good recipe not to react with “gotta call Mama…” I have a son, now serving in Afghanistan, and he tickled me the first year he moved out. He would call me and want me to be on the phone as he grocery shopped. He is creative, I’ll give him that.
mama made these too, but she fried it on top of the stove. she called it a FLITTER. don’t know where that came from, but she quilted for the public & worked it like a regular job. got up every morning early, fixed her a flitter & egg, coffee, & went to work, taking only a small lunch break & right back at it til wheel of fortune time, then a break & supper! yes, i agree, that you are smart beyond your years & seem to know what is ‘important’ far earlier in life than most!
This particular post really tugged at my heart strings for the many people who posted about their mothers who are no longer with us. I still have my mother and for that I am thankful. However I cannot tell you about her wonderful cooking but I can share some pretty funny times when she tried to cook.
My mother worked two jobs the entire time I was growing up in order to take care of my brother and I. Whenever she would get a day off she would attempt to cook us a real meal and sometimes it was actually good but most of the time is was what I refer to as flash cooked…black on the outside and raw on the inside lol. Her biscuits have been the highlight of many a joke in our home…thank God she can take the humor. You see, when my momma made biscuits they would turn out really. really hard and have these little knobby dark bumps all over them. My brother and me used to say that they had the measles and mumps haha.
Anyhow, I can remember one time my brother had a friend over for the night and the next morning Mom attempted her biscuits as a “special” treat for us. As usual the biscuits turned out more like rocks than clouds. On this particular day it was raining outside and we couldn’t go out and play. Being the crafty kids that we were, we decided that we would play wiffle ball in the house…well it was actually a trailer, so we had a nice long hall way to play in. We had the wiffle bat (plastic bat for those who don’t know what wiffle ball was) but we didn’t have a ball. So yep, you guessed it, we used the biscuits! It was hilarious…My brother stood in the living room and I stood in the end bedroom and the only thing that separated us was a long hallway. I was the pitcher and my brother and his friend took turns batting at mom’s biscuits. Them things bounced off the hallway walls and we rolled laughing each time they hit, even Momma was busting a gut at hard them biscuits was. LOL
Funny thing is that Momma remarried when I was 15 and the guy she married was very good cook. He taught Momma that there were more settings on the stove other than “high” and eventually she became a very good cook. She is now the food production manager at a fancy private college here in KY…still makes my head spin to think about how much things have changed since I was a child.
Sorry to be so long winded but I just love to share the wiffle ball story with others, hope you enjoyed it.
Cindy Lou
Love it when you post stuff that I already have all the ingredients! Makes it so much more fun when I can just run into the kitchen and have some ASAP! Baking as I type! Smells awesome! So for me it wasn’t my Mom cooking it was my Dad! How about them apples? He was a decent cook but not an inventive one! I honestly think that that is why I lust after new recipes and ideas in the kitchen because I grew up eating the same 10 meals all made EXACTLY the same way each time! No variations! I’m bound and determined that my three boys grow up and talk about MY cooking though! I may eventually have to give them up to their wives but I intend to make those girls sweat trying to cook as well as I do!
Christy, I have added some finely shredded Cheddar cheese to the batter and you will have Cheddar Biscuits just like the ones served at your local Red Lobster. Talk about something being yummmmmo.
My mom is no longer with us either. I really regret not asking her to give me copies of her recipes, or writing them down myself, because now they are lost to me. She was Irish but she made the BEST Italian food…and delicious pies, cakes, and the like. When I was a kid she used to make great pepper relish…sweet, a bit tart, made with diced up red and green peppers and onion. It was great stuff.
Bet these biscuits would be good with a little cheese mixed in, or sprinkled over the top before baking them. Yum.
my mom is from tennesse and has never been much of a baker, so what i learned about cooking/baking i learned from my grandmother (affectionately nicknamed Granny Pig). my granny could whip up anything and everything with very few ingredients. but passing on the torch to cook/bake has been both a curse and a reward…a curse becuase everyone wants me to bake or cook something, and the reward is…you know everyone enjoying what i prepare. when i bake or cook, i do it from scratch and it’s made with love, although some don’t understand why i make things from scratch…it’s not hard, just a little time put in and it’s all good. so thanks christy for bringing me back to my southern roots and keep those recipes coming.
What??? No bacon grease??? Christy, you’re slipping here. I’m here to tell you, when I make these there won’t be ANY vegetable oil! It’s bacon grease all the way….Oh, I can just taste them now. myum, myum, myum.
My mama was a Yankee lady, bless her heart. Now HER mama, my Nana, was from Maryland and she was a good cook. Except biscuits. Have mercy. The woman made WOP biscuits. Nasty things they are, too. Every night we’d have the same conversation:
Nana: Darlene, don’t you want some biscuits.
Me: No thank you, Nana. I don’t care for canned biscuits.
Nana: But Darlin’ I made them JUST FOR YOU!
Me: But Nana, I don’t LIKE canned biscuits.
Nana: Ok, well then, I’ll eat yours.
EVERY NIGHT for 16 months and then whenever I was home on leave. She NEVER got it that I DON’T LIKE CANNED BISCUITS! lol That or it made a good excuse to make them and have a double portion! lol
Now if anyone knows how to make fricasseed chicken, PLEASE let me know. It’s one thing of hers that I failed to learn to make. I know she fried them and then did something and added some water, covered and let cook ??? long? But the meat was moist, tender and had a nice thick gravy – without her actually making gravy and putting it over the meat. It was just the scraps from the bottom of the pan and water cooked together. At least, that’s the way I remember it.
I bet these would be good with some cheese and garlic powder in them. I had an old camping buddy that used to do cheesy drop biscuits and the were as good as Red Lobster. Thank you Christy!
I almost cry every time I use my mother’s beloved cast iron skillet for cornbread. And still, it just isn’t as good as hers! My grandmother (lived all her life in Birmingham) used to cook what we called “greasy green beans.” I’m aching for some! I do like the less-cooked, slightly-crunchy beans that are fashionable today, but would so love a pot of these beans. I think she just added fatback and cooked them forever. And of course, added MawMaw’s love.
My Mom made great biscuits and still does once in a while. She is now 79 years old. When the boy next door knew she was making biscuits for supper, he made it a point to “get invited”. That lasted until his mom found out and made him stop visiting at suppertime.Mom used to make popovers as well. They were crispy crunchy outside and hollow inside.We didn’t have them often because my dad always wanted her biscuits, but when she did make them, I was a happy person. Doesn’t food hold so many warm memories?
So many touching posts today…..I am fortunate to still have my Mama with me, and also fortunate that she is a good cook!
She has already written down many of the recipes she made for Daddy and me when I was growing up. The one thing she always fixed that I simply cannot master is steak and gravy!
My mother and grandmother always cut out their biscuits. Used the little juice glasses you got with Bama Jelly. (My granddaddy worked for Bama and I never drank out of a glass that wasn’t a jelly jar until I was grown.). Anyway, I first had drop biscuits when my Aunt Agnes came to stay with us after my mom passed away when I was 19. She got up every morning for those two weeks and made biscuits, bacon, eggs and grits for us before we either headed to work or school. A lot of my recipes are my Aunt Agnes’….no wonder they call me “Little Agnes”.
My mama died when I was 5 so I never had a chance to get to really know her. I was the youngest of 4 boys and we were very poor. My MaMa Brown (my Dad’s Mom) came to live with us and was a wonderful cook. She made my PJ’s out of bleached flour sacks. My fondest memory was watching her wring a Chicken’s neck, and watching her fry that same chicken for supper. I remember her to tell me to sit under the kitchen table cause I was underfoot while she cooked. I was the only one of 4 boys allowed in the kitchen while she cooked. I loved her so much – she died in 1963.
What beautiful posts from all the readers! Motherhood is love in action and we never forget the gifts of love our mothers have given us, each in her own special way. My mother showed a great deal of her love for her family in her cooking–and she produced the most delicious food I have EVER tasted. I can never reproduce her cooking efforts satisfactorily, although my own family doesn’t complain (too much!). I miss my Mama (we never outgrow the need for our mamas) and pray that she knows what a legacy of love she has left.
My mother was a very good cook but my Grand Mother did the baking. When I was too young to see the top of the drain board she “Mama” would put me in a kitchen chair so I could kneed her bread. She made 5 loves a week all the way through the WW2 as she had since she got married in the early 1900′s or late 1890′s Then she said she was going to try some “store bread” after that home made bread was a special treat. But where she really shown was with her biscuits, pies, fried pies and cakes etc. To make biscuits she would put a pint (in a glass bottle with a paper seal) of pasteurized milk out to sour very early in the morning. This was my first hint we were going to have biscuits. She had a flour bin that held 25lbs of flour and a wooden bowl that she held in her apron. She would open the flour bin and just scrape flour into the bowl, get out the lard and cut off a piece cut it into the flour then make a well pour in some sour milk and work it in adjusting the milk till it suited her. Then roll out the dough and with her “biscuit” glass cut out the biscuits and bake. These were about 1″ thick and 4″ around. I have never been able to duplicate her biscuits. I think the loss of the butter fat in the pasteurized milk has a lot to do with it. That and her loving touch. Being male I have always felt blessed to have received some of her knowledge and love of cooking. I now have some trouble with the prep but I will continue to cook as long as I can in honor of my grand mother and mother. Had an Aunt Bell that showed me some about canning but that is a whole other story.
Christy is right about missing the person, and no one can cook like mama.
Got to have Sawmill Gravy on the biscuits, though.
I too have been a failure at making bisuits but will give this a shot! My husband loves tomato gravy over biscuits…so here goes!
Thanks Christy for the great recipes..I just found you and have shared you with family and friends here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast!
Tomato gravy {{drool}}. Even my mid-western hubby loves it. My Aunt Gypsie didn’t thicken hers with flour like everyone in the family. I like her way best.
My mom died 13 years ago–before I was married or had a family of my own. I always enjoyed her cooking. I loved walking in the door, home for the weekend from college, and smelling what was cooking. She didn’t make a lot of desserts, but she was a great pie maker–pecan, lemon & chocolate meringue, peach cream. . . I’ve often wished I could go back and get a lesson from her on making pies! My mother-in-law is known for her pies, but they’re just not like MY mama did it.
My mother was a wonderful cook. She made the best cakes, pies, cookies, etc. And her everyday cooking was great, too. She made me sit and watch her cook as a child, so I learned to make a lot of different things. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to make a small amount of anything.
My mother-in-law was a pretty good cook, at least with most things. She made wop biscuits, and ruined those. She poured oil in the pan, put the biscuits in, then turned them over so they had oil on both sides. They came out really dark and hard on the bottom, and my husband doesn’t like them like that. She made wonderful cakes (the best Italian Cream Cake), but the crusts on her pies were always burned. She gave us a homemade pecan pie at Christmas time one year. We had to chip the filling out. (Could have used a chisel.) But we told her it was delicious.
Miss them both so much.
All these poignant posts brought tears to my eyes. The impact our mothers have on our lives seems to last a lifetime and our fondest memories are derived from what were perceived as the simplest of moments. Thank you, Christy.
I’ve always been a pretty good cook. I had to do the family cooking because my Mom worked night shift and Daddy came home from his first job to eat before he went to his second job. I got a pretty good education in cooking from myh Mom, tho. Now I’m a good, simple , home cooking kind of cook. When I first married, nearly 40 years ago, I made some canned biscuits for my husband & my dinner. My Mom had always made “real” biscuits, but I was working and trying to fix a good dinner after I got home. What I remember, my husband said “These taste just like Mom’s”. I wasn’t too fond of the canned biscuits, and I told him “Well, they ought to, they came out of a can.” His mother was an excellent cook, but she never made a good biscuit. She would put oil in the pan and coat both sides of the dough in oil and then bake them They were hard as hockey pucks. Early in our marriage, he would tell me something as as “good as Mom’s”. Now, I have my daughter calling me to ask how to make something. I guess it goes full circle. When I was cooking for my Dad, those years ago, he ate my learn-how’s. But I had watched and helped my Mom as I was growing up and I pretty well knew what I was doing. You never get over the lonliness of losing your parents. Cooking brings back memories.
I’m thinking of making a bunch of these to freeze.
my mom made similar like yours, Christy, but for variety, she adds in some corn and sugar for the kids and for the adult, she adds in corn and chili flakes to make it spicy!!!! its a great hit in the house and we ate it as snack during tea time with ice cold tea!! yummy!!!
my mom is a homemaker and i always remember how hard she struggled to take of 6 of us and still make sure the house is spotless without any dishwasher or a washing machine! my dad is great too because after he came back from work (he’s a teacher), my mom would dump all kids to him and he would bath us, feed us dinner and make sure my mom gets her rest or do her social activities without a single complain! i guess that’s how a marriage should be, by cooperation! as a single gal, i wonder if i could meet a man like my dad!
my mom is a great woman, fine, she nags all the time about why i am not married yet but no one can beat her in the cooking category! i guess no one can beat our own mom!! she’s a cheeky, brave and doesnt look her age at all! i love my mom!
Thank you for using my quote
I SO miss my Granny…She made biscuits like these and I can literally taste them now…
Just gotta say we’ve been making these all my life! My sister and I loved ‘em when we were growin’ up, and my kids love ‘em; but the funniest thing is that my son called them “flop” biscuits. : ) He would beg, “mama, can we pleeease have flop biscuits for supper?” What a hoot! He’s 22 now, and he still loves them. : )
This is for Shelly and her request for “greasy green beans”.
The way my family cooks ‘good’ green beans is probably what you are referring to. Yes, she probably did cook them for a long period of time. But we now cook ours first in a pressure cooker. Ok, first….do not even think of using green beans in a can from the store, they have to be fresh & broken, or homecanned ones (not frozen ones either). You might as well, make a big pot of them, since everyone will eat a bunch of them, and you will want some for leftovers. Start out stringing & breaking about 4-5 lbs of green beans, wash them and put into a tall pressure cooker without the little rack in the bottom (not the great big one you use for canning- thats too big). Add about 1 inch of water. Close the lid, turn your stove eye on high, and when it starts jiggling vigorously, turn the eye down to between low & medium. Just where it jiggles gently. Cook for approx. 20-30 min. Remove and cool it down with no steam when you remove the jiggler on top. When you open the lid, add about 1/2-3/4 cup of vegetable oil in the same pot, but don’t put the lid back on (I don’t like fat back or bacon, as it gives the beans a peculiar taste), then turn your eye back up to where they are boiling again and then find a happy temp like the pressure cooker temp. Carefully start adding salt (about 1 TBS) and stir, then taste. Repeat this until you get the right taste. Remember, when you boil them down, the salt will be more strong. Just enough salt, like you would almost want if you were salting your plate at the table. Just not quite your desired flavor because it will concentrate as it cooks. Now here is where it gets tricky. Your goal is to boil the liquid out off the beans. But what you have to be careful of, is boiling them off too fast and letting your beans stick and burn. If this happens, you might as well throw them out in the trash. You can’t get that smell out of them. So be careful. If you accidentally let a very few stick to the bottom DON”T STIR THEM AT ALL. Just lift the ones on top off into a bowl, and they might be edible. Depends on how burnt they smell. Let them boil slowly, and when it starts to get to the point where you don’t see much liquid when you scrap around in the pot ( and I really mean-not much liquid! All you should see, is a little of the oil boiling, not water). Check your salt again and make sure you have enough. This second boiling will take about 30-45 min. A few more hints… don’t worry about stirring your beans and them breaking apart, that just makes them better. And you can make them ahead, and refrigerate overnight (they just taste better) then reheat on simmer-low. The reason for not telling exact measurements, depends on how full the pot is. You can fill the pressure cooker all the way to the top, because they will cook down and make more water. So, my measurements are for 3/4 full to completely full when you pressure them. Also, if you use homecanned green beans, cut the pressure time down to about 10 min. or just do the second step only. And drain off some of the liquid from the canning jars first, but not all. Otherwise you’ll have to boil them down for a longer period of time. One more hint…if you get them too salty, add some water and boil them down again, to de-concentrate them. Salting is actually what makes the green beans taste so good. It sounds weird, but if you get the correct amount of salt, they will have a slight sweet taste when boiled down. I think you will like these and tell me if they taste like your ‘greasy green beans’.
Our Mothers and Grandmother both know the “right” way to cook…lol..I remember this recipe from last year, and never got around to making it. I believe I will now. Thanks for the re-runs…lol…oh by the way I’m going to post that quote on FB. I just love it! ^_^
LARD … THAT’S the bisquit ticket! YUM!!!! ;-P
This recipe brings back memories. My mother made “tea biscuits” or “Soda biscuits” but the recipe was almost exactly like this one. She didn’t use self rising flour – but instead used regular flour, baking soda and salt … so i guess that’s about the same. I think she used lard or shortening when I was young, but switched to butter when I was older.
Like many others my mom wasn’t the best cook .. not dinner wise anyway (although she did make a mean roast!). Where she excelled was in her baking. She made the best pastries, breads, biscuits, desserts and oh – home made donuts. She used old cook books that had been printed in the 30′s and 40′s and didn’t buy many new ones as the old ones were just fine. In fact I have all of her old cook books now and I use them quite often.
My mom learned to cook from her mother and I followed in their footsteps. I have four other siblings, all older and none of them enjoy cooking very much, but I’ve loved it since I was a very young girl. I was her assistant in the kitchen and she trusted me to make her bread and pastry doughs by the time I was nine years old or so.
Every time we made bread together the first loaf would be eaten almost as soon as it came out of the oven – slathered in butter of course.
One thing that she did that we loved was to use the last of her pasty dough to make a sugar roll. You just combine the pastry scraps into a ball, roll it out, butter it and then sprinkle it liberally with brown sugar and a little Cinnamon. Roll it up and shape it into a half circle (or full circle if you have enough), place in greased pie plate, cut little openings in the top of the pasty every few inches, and bake (425 F ?) until the pasty is golden and sugary syrup is leaking out. Take it out of the oven, let it cool and set for a few minutes then cut into pieces that are about two inches long and serve. Delicious. Do you ever make anything like that?
I still cook the way my mom taught me. I don’t like processed “easy” food. I try to make as much home made meals as I can manage. It reminds me of home, my mother and I think it’s much more simple, healthier, and tastier. I actually make large batches of food at once and freeze what we can’t eat right away (soups, chillies, meat loaf, pies, sauces etc) so that even if we’re feeling lazy we can still have a home made meal.
My mom passed away from cancer almost 7 years ago. I miss her dearly, but she taught me well and when I cook I feel like my mom is nearby.
I have to tell you that I love your site. I only discovered it about a month ago, but I’ve been enjoying browsing through it and getting your newsletter. I’m not Southern (I’m from Ontario) but it seems that our methods of cooking are similar. Keep up the good work – I’ll be reading, sharing and sampling.
shortening biscuits ALWAYS take better! Sometimes when we take too much of something out of recipes, they loose what made them special! We only have these about once a month, but they are SO good!!!
I tried to make these biscuits – followed the instructions….they baked to a golden brown but fell apart before I could get them to my mouth. What did I do wrong? PLEASE HELP
I hope someone will give me a suggestion. I’d really like to do this and get the desired results!
Hey Lee! I’m thinking, off the top of my head, that you should add a bit more milk. Your dough should be kind of like a lumpy cake batter. Sounds like your flour might have been the culprit (not you). Let me know what you think and we’ll figure this out together!
Gratefully
Christy
My wife tells me that I’m on restriction. I’m a diabetic and my blood sugar soared to 268….it usually is 115 or so….didn’t help that I ate 5…LOL – even though they fell apart, they were GOOD. i PROMISED MY WIFE THAT IF WE TRY AGAIN, I’LL BE GOOD….
God bless you Christy! Look what you have started here with your request for memories of mama. I’m sure your mama’s real proud of you! These have about to made me cry . . .
My mother is 83, an excellent cook, just retired a few months ago and still spoils me and cooks for me sometimes. I’m almost 60 and I sure hope I grow up to be half the woman she is . . . .