Food

A Sunday Meal-Time Staple – The Homemade Biscuit

There are few Southern staples more iconic than a flaky, golden-brown, buttered biscuit. Imagine a basket of biscuits is passed around the table as everyone settles in for a Sunday supper shared with family and friends. Just the thought of it makes your mouth water!  

Unlike the original English biscuit, which was traditionally baked and then dried in the oven to create a hard, thin cracker for soldiers to carry in their pockets for wartime sustenance, the classic Southern biscuit evolved into a soft, fluffy delicacy. Born in Southern Appalachia in the late 1800s, “beaten biscuits” were often the duty of enslaved cooks or domestic servants and could take well over an hour. When baking powder and soda became commercially available, biscuits became much easier and quicker to make.

One of our favorite, and perhaps the most classic, biscuit recipes can be found in Charleston Receipts, which was published in 1950 by the Junior League of Charleston.  

After baking your biscuits to golden-brown perfection, serve them with fresh goat cheese from The Goatery at Kiawah River or a spoonful of honey from Kiawah River’s actively maintained beehives. 

Charleston Receipts Biscuit Recipe 

The muffins and rolls melt in your mouth; The waffles and biscuits hit the spot. Oh, hear the table-call of the South: “Take two! And butter them while they’re hot!” 

Ingredients: 

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup milk

2 tablespoons shortening

Instructions: 

Sift and measure flour, then add baking powder and salt and sift into a bowl. Cut in shortening with a fork until fine meal, add milk slowly until right consistency and not too sticky.  Take a good forkful of dough and roll between floured hands quickly to an oblong shape two inches long. Prick with fork and place on an ungreased sheet in the oven at 500 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Makes one dozen biscuits.  

Enjoy!