Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren bog Obam here. When you think of light, fluffy biscuits,
Speaker 1: you may think of the other traditional foods from the
Speaker 1: American South that they pair so well with a fried chicken,
Speaker 1: gravy and homemade jam. But biscuits like the ones we
Speaker 1: eat today in the United States are fairly modern culinary creations.
Speaker 1: Throughout much of history, biscuits weren't at the center of
Speaker 1: dreamy breakfasts or chicken dinners. They were hard, thin, durable, dry,
Speaker 1: and meant for survival. The word biscuit comes from the
Speaker 1: Latin word panis biscottis, which means twice baked, and so
Speaker 1: it's no coincidence that a biscuit was once similar to biscotti,
Speaker 1: the Italian cookies that actually are twice baked. Soldiers in
Speaker 1: ancient Rome received hard biscuits in their rations. They had
Speaker 1: no leavening agent or fat, so they lasted a long time.
Speaker 1: Hard biscuits of some type or the m r e
Speaker 1: s or meals ready to eat of military personnel for
Speaker 1: centuries and have been known by the names hard tech,
Speaker 1: ship's biscuit, sea biscuit, and pilot bread. Fast forward to
Speaker 1: the Antebellum South, Biscuits were still tough and flat and
Speaker 1: typically were only eaten in wealthy homes. Most people living
Speaker 1: in the South at the time ate corn bread instead.
Speaker 1: That's because most mills in the South were great at
Speaker 1: grinding corn but not at processing wheat, so only the
Speaker 1: rich could afford flour, which often had to be shipped
Speaker 1: in from northern states. Beaten biscuits, which could be considered
Speaker 1: the precursor to the modern Southern biscuit, were only a
Speaker 1: little better than hardtack. They included fat like butter or lard,
Speaker 1: but still no leavening agent, so beaten biscuits remained flat
Speaker 1: and only slightly lighter because the dove required fifteen minutes
Speaker 1: of kneading or beating. It wasn't until several nineteenth century
Speaker 1: innovations came along that we got what's now recognized as
Speaker 1: a Southern biscuit. First, better flour mills, most of them
Speaker 1: in the midwestern United States, and increased wheat production dropped
Speaker 1: the price of flour enough that less than wealthy Southerners
Speaker 1: could also afford to buy flour, And the development of
Speaker 1: chemical leavening agents such as potassium carbonate potassium bicarbonate and
Speaker 1: sodium bicarbonate, what we now call baking soda, helped biscuits
Speaker 1: reach new heights without yeast or beaten eggs. If you're
Speaker 1: going to bake your own fluffy, flaky biscuits at home,
Speaker 1: it's not hard, but a few details are important. Keep
Speaker 1: your butter cold. Don't let it get too soft while
Speaker 1: you're working it into the flour. You want the butter
Speaker 1: to melt when the biscuits are cooking in the oven,
Speaker 1: because melting butter produces steam that will help the biscuits rise. Also,
Speaker 1: to make the most of the leavening power of your
Speaker 1: baking soda and baking powder, bake the biscuits as soon
Speaker 1: as you mix the wet and dry ingredients together. Baking
Speaker 1: soda starts to work as soon as it's moist, and
Speaker 1: those biscuits will lose some height if you let the
Speaker 1: dough sit. Finally, use a biscuit cutter, cookie cutter, or
Speaker 1: a sharp knife to cut the biscuit dough. Don't use
Speaker 1: a glass, and if you do use a cutter, don't
Speaker 1: twist it. Nice clean edges help the dough rise. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was written by Sean Chavis and produced by tie
Speaker 1: Acclaim Sean provided his own biscuit recipe to accompany the story.
Speaker 1: You can find it by searching for the light and
Speaker 1: fluffy history of Southern biscuits available on our home planet,
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com.