Becky's Homemade Biscuits

The key to making great biscuits is having the right ingredients. I use White Lily Unbleached Self-rising flour, Crisco, and buttermilk. Since I have made thousands of biscuits in the last forty years, I do not measure anymore. However, for you I will give you the approximate amount for each ingredient.

Use one cup of flour to three tablespoons of shortening. For a larger batch just double the flour to two cups flour and six tablespoons shortening. Be sure to cut the shortening into the flour. (I just use two dinner knives or you could use a pastry cutter.) Slowly add enough buttermilk to moisten the flour and shortening. Stir until all the flour and buttermilk is mixed. Do not get it too wet. Sprinkle flour on a board and pour the dough out. Sprinkle a little more flour on top and work into a ball with
your hands. Roll it out to about three quarters of an inch thick. Next cut out your biscuits. I use a drinking glass to cut out the biscuits because it has a larger diameter and makes a thicker biscuit. Bake at 375-400 degrees depending on your oven until golden brown.

Survival Cooking

Recently we had several power outages reminding us to get prepared for the inevitable loss of electricity that occurs in the country. We have several propane lanterns and stoves for providing light and cooking food. Baking however poses a slightly different problem. We have two different methods we use to bake in our fireplace. The tried and true method for hundreds of years is the cast iron Dutch over (pictured on the left) and our other method is the high tech cardboard box covered with heavy duty aluminum foil better knows as a reflector oven.

Using the Dutch oven method, we placed the biscuits in a round pan and put them on a trivet in the Dutch oven. We then shoveled out some of the coals and placed the Dutch oven over the coals. Next we placed several scopes of hot coals on the top of lid. The lid has a rim that holds the coals in place.

 You can check the bread by lifting the lid with a tool made by a blacksmith. This tool is specially designed just for lifting the lid without getting burned. Making the biscuits with this method took about 32 minutes.

Here you see the results of using the reflector oven. We placed the open front of the box toward the fire. The heat can be controlled by moving the box closer or further away from the fire. We did elevate the pan on a trivet so heat could circulate underneath. We found it necessary to do this in 1993 when we had a huge snowstorm and was out of power for eight days.  By trial and error we found that elevating the pan created more even cooking. During the snowstorm we had biscuits every morning as well as homemade cakes. The reflector works especially well with a fireplace because the heat is reflected forward. If used at a campfire, it will probably take longer to cook.

Here are the two pans of biscuits we cooked. The reflector oven took a few minutes more because we did not have a large bed of coals. In bad weather our fireplace burns constantly and has a better bed of hot coals, thus reducing cooking time. You really cannot tell the difference between the two. Both methods did the job in almost the same time as an electric oven. So when bad weather hits, either method will keep you in bread, cakes, and pies.

Crockpot Yogurt

You will need milk (whole or low fat), powdered milk, crockpot, food thermometer, whisk or electric mixer, and several tablespoons of plain yogurt with active cultures. (Once you make the yogurt, you can reserve some of it to inoculate your next batch.) I use a one quart crockpot but have used a larger one.

Using a whisk or electric mixer, mix the milk with one half package of powdered milk in a bowl. The powdered milk I buy comes in 3 and 3/4  cup packages.When thoroughly mixed put the mixture in your crockpot and turn it on.

You will heat the mixture until it reaches 180 degrees. This may take several hours depending on your crockpot. Once it reaches 180 degrees, turn off the crockpot (leave on the lid) and allow to cool. At this time remove your plain yogurt from the refrigerator and leave on the counter until it reaches room temperature. Let the mixture in your crockpot cool to 120 degrees. When the temperature of the milk mixture reaches 120 degrees, add 2-3 tablespoons of the plain yogurt and whisk.

Now put the lid on the crockpot and cover in several layers of towels. This allows the mixture of cool very slowly. Leave 8-12 hours undisturbed.

Now you have fresh yogurt with active bacterial cultures. Store in the refrigerator. After several days you may have some whey separate from the solids. Just pour the liquid off. When you are ready to eat, add fresh fruit and honey. Be sure to save several tablespoons for your next recipe.