TheSamba.com :: View topic - Cat head biscuits and fatback: Childhood in the South

Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:04 pm

I grew up in the '70's in the deep South. My (maternal) grandparents came from nothing...dirt poor, grew up in the depression.
Times got beter and PawPaw got a job at the cotton mill making denim. He'd come home covered in blue lint and would smoke Camels w/o the filter, lit with a Zippo lighter. This is a man who couldn't read but fought in the Battle of the Bulge and went all the way to Berlin as a B.A.R. man. He was Bronze Star recipient.
Even when times were good they still raised chickens, planted a garden and collected rain water in drums under the gutter downspouts. I remember collecting eggs, trapping possums in the chicken coop and shelling beans.
But one of the things I remember most are cat head biscuits and fatback. My MawMaw always made buttermilk "drop biscuits", or what she called "cat head bicuits" because they were the size of a cat's head. Along side the biscuits, which were kept in a bake-lite style container on the stove top, were pieces of fatback.
We'd come running through the house and I'd always stop, smell the buttermilk biscuits, grab a piece of fatback and run back outside.

I asked my grandmother to teach me how to make the biscuits years ago, but she told me she couldn't make them anymore. She didn't know if the flour or shortening had changed or what, but they would no longer rise. I'm DYING to taste (and smell) a big, fat, ugly cat-head biscuit. Does ANYONE have a good recipe for old fashioned, hand made buttermilk biscuits?

Oh, and she made a mouth watering chicken and dumplings from scratch, too.

Thu Oct 30, 2008 6:27 pm

Cathead biscuits with sorghum syrup and butter. Yum.

Thu Oct 30, 2008 6:48 pm

:shock: for a second i was a bit worried.

Bisquik has or had a receipe for drop bisquits on their box, might check there.

Thu Oct 30, 2008 7:31 pm

Simple recipe:

2 1/4 cups of self rising flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons Crisco shortening
buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400.

Place 2 cups flour and salt into a bowl. Cut in crisco using hand held pastry blender. Add 1/2 cup buttermilk and stir until mixture begins to thicken. Add more buttermilk as needed until mixture is thick and moist and forms a thick ball of dough.

Sprinkle some of the remaining flour on a covered counter surface and place dough on the flour. Knead until dough is well floured and ready to shape.

Either pinch off amount needed and drop on pan or roll out flat using a floured glass. The mouth of the glass can then be used to cut the biscuits.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Larger biscuits will take longer to cook.

Thu Oct 30, 2008 7:44 pm

Zillion recipies out there, but basically your grandmother probably made them like this:

2 cups flour (self rising)
1 cup buttermilk
big golf ball sized chunk of lard
dash of salt

toss into a bowl, and mix together with you hand (only your hand, no spoons or forks or anything). When mixed, break off golf ball sized lumps and put on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 until done.

The trouble is, your grandmother was right, they aren’t gonna turn out like your grandmother’s because the modern ingredients are different, so we’re going to mess around and compensate for this.

First problem is the lard. You don’t want modern lard in a can, you want old fashioned flake lard. Basically you want lard that needs to be refrigerated, so ask the butcher. Maybe find a store that sells to a lot of Hispanics. The key is that it can’t be processed so it’s shelf stable, you want the stuff that needs to be refrigerated.

Next problem is the buttermilk. Real buttermilk is what’s left over when you churn butter from cream. Today the buttermilk is artificially made by adding lactic acid to regular milk. If it says “cultured buttermilk” it’s fake. Maybe you can find the real stuff at a health food store.

See, the natural lard is what makes them flaky, and the natural acids in the buttermilk (combined with the baking powder) is what makes them rise.

If you can find real honest to goodness lard and buttermilk then that recipe above is probably OK to use. If not, we’re gonna have to adjust. So

1. Instead of self rising flour use all purpose flour.
2. Use your good lard and use the cultured buttermilk.
3. Add 1 teaspoon of salt
4. Add 3 teaspoons of FRESH baking powder
5. Add 1 teaspoon of vinegar
6. Add one teaspoon of unsalted butter

Make sure the baking powder is fresh by putting a little bit on the counter and drip some vinegar on it. If it fizzes it’s OK. The lard should be at room temp. Now go ahead and bake it as above. Don't over mix the dough, as soon as it's evenly moist you're done.

The salt and baking powder will turn the all purpose flour into self-rising flour. The acid in the vinegar will replace the natural acids that are missing in the fake buttermilk. And the butter will boost the butterfat content of the fake buttermilk. Oh, and read the baking powder box—if it says single-acting then get them into the oven immediately. If it’s double-acting then let it sit for about 5 minutes before you put it in the oven. Double-acting would be better. Your grandmother would have saved her bacon grease, so go ahead and use bacon grease instead of butter if you feel like it. I mean, you’re asking for a heart attack anyway, what’s a little bacon grease gonna matter?

I'm guessing on this, but my family was in the baking business for 70 years, and my grandparents came from Black Hollow, Virginia, so I think I know what you're talking about.

Thu Oct 30, 2008 8:09 pm

Bob Hoover's blog contains a biscuit recipe.

http://bobhooversblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/biscuits.html

Hoover gets props...

Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:02 pm

there is no other

Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:40 pm

I made lard a couple of years ago after butchering a hog. What a PITA. Took all day to cook that fat down and ladle it off over a cheese cloth into a 2.5 gallon bucket. At about 11 PM I put the fire out and I had about 2.5 gallons. I put in the fridge and it hardened up and was pure white. I gave it to my neighbor, cause my wife didn't know what to do with it.

Good luck finding buttermilk. You might be able to get some from your local raw milk producer if they make cheese too.

Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:42 pm

I'm sure there's a banjo in the recipe somewhere.

Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:49 pm

chickengeorge wrote: I'm sure there's a banjo in the recipe somewhere.

I thought you hung yourself for failing to paint your house.

Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:53 pm

Bart wrote: chickengeorge wrote: I'm sure there's a banjo in the recipe somewhere.

I thought you hung yourself for failing to paint your house.
I didn't have the balls.

Fri Oct 31, 2008 2:53 am

I've got plenty of lard, I just call it bacon grease.

Fri Oct 31, 2008 3:43 am

Bart wrote: Good luck finding buttermilk. You might be able to get some from your local raw milk producer if they make cheese too.

I can get buttermilk at any grocery store down here.

Fri Oct 31, 2008 6:32 am

scott s wrote: Bart wrote: Good luck finding buttermilk. You might be able to get some from your local raw milk producer if they make cheese too.

I can get buttermilk at any grocery store down here.

"real" buttermilk?

Fri Oct 31, 2008 7:06 am

Bart wrote: I made lard a couple of years ago after butchering a hog. What a PITA. Took all day to cook that fat down and ladle it off over a cheese cloth into a 2.5 gallon bucket. At about 11 PM I put the fire out and I had about 2.5 gallons.

You really butcher hogs? You do it old school with the tripod to hang the hog and the big cast iron kettle and all that?

Fri Oct 31, 2008 7:08 am

coad wrote: Bart wrote: I made lard a couple of years ago after butchering a hog. What a PITA. Took all day to cook that fat down and ladle it off over a cheese cloth into a 2.5 gallon bucket. At about 11 PM I put the fire out and I had about 2.5 gallons.

You really butcher hogs? You do it old school with the tripod to hang the hog and the big cast iron kettle and all that?

My neighbor does. Hogs and cattle.

Fri Oct 31, 2008 7:16 am

Icy wrote: coad wrote: Bart wrote: I made lard a couple of years ago after butchering a hog. What a PITA. Took all day to cook that fat down and ladle it off over a cheese cloth into a 2.5 gallon bucket. At about 11 PM I put the fire out and I had about 2.5 gallons.

You really butcher hogs? You do it old school with the tripod to hang the hog and the big cast iron kettle and all that?

My neighbor does. Hogs and cattle.

I remember scraping the hogs after my grandfather would shoot them in the head. What a PITA that job was.......

Fri Oct 31, 2008 7:17 am

Icy wrote: coad wrote: Bart wrote: I made lard a couple of years ago after butchering a hog. What a PITA. Took all day to cook that fat down and ladle it off over a cheese cloth into a 2.5 gallon bucket. At about 11 PM I put the fire out and I had about 2.5 gallons.

You really butcher hogs? You do it old school with the tripod to hang the hog and the big cast iron kettle and all that?

My neighbor does. Hogs and cattle.

Damn, you Okies really are country.

Fri Oct 31, 2008 7:19 am

coad wrote: Icy wrote: coad wrote: Bart wrote: I made lard a couple of years ago after butchering a hog. What a PITA. Took all day to cook that fat down and ladle it off over a cheese cloth into a 2.5 gallon bucket. At about 11 PM I put the fire out and I had about 2.5 gallons.

You really butcher hogs? You do it old school with the tripod to hang the hog and the big cast iron kettle and all that?

My neighbor does. Hogs and cattle.

Damn, you Okies really are country.

Funny part is, he's from Montana. He moved here after getting fed up with his house being buried under 15' of snow. But yes, he's about as country as creamed corn.

Fri Oct 31, 2008 8:05 am

I watched my grandmother wring the neck and then cook many chickens when I was a kid.She would grab the chicken by the head and twirl it like a lasso and off popped the head.The body would thrash around for what seemed like 30 minutes................sometimes chicken and dumplings and sometimes fried nothing now comes close.God I loved to go there when I was a kid.If I pulled some shit like that now when my grandkids were at my place their mothers would report me to DHS.