Biscuits: Fat & Flavor

Wanna know what I love about biscuits? You can take kitchen staple ingredients like butter and flour and salt and mix them with buttermilk and create warm fluffy cloud layers of goodness. It is the ultimate “nothing into something” that tastes so dang good!

Social Distancing in light of Covid-19 gave me a chance to do some recipe testing that I have been wanting to do for a very long time. There is no doubt that fat is flavor. I love using bacon fat, duck fat, and of course butter. I consider butter essential for biscuits, but I have been really curious to see how other fats stand up in biscuit making.

I can now, happily say, that baking off five different batches of biscuits has been one of the highlights of quarantine life. Friends, it was AMAZING! I did the testing for you, friends, and I’m here to tell you which fats are best!

The most important thing you need to know is soft winter wheat flour is best. Biscuits should always be made with White Lily Flour! I grew up knowing this because White Lily originated out of Tennessee. I remember always seeing a bag of White Lily flour on my Grandma Lillie’s counter. White Lily flour is commonplace in southern states, but it’s not so easy to come by here in Indiana. I actually buy 25-50 pounds of it when I’m visiting Tennessee. (Can you believe I went through almost 35 pounds of White Lily All-Purpose Flour between January and May? That’s some serious quarantine cooking!) I finished off my final bag of White Lily Flour by testing these recipes.

Check out the chart below to find out every fat I tested and keep reading to find out how they each turned out!

Buttermilk Biscuits w/ High Fat Butter

Biscuits with butter are what I consider “Old Faithful”. They are always delicious and every technique I have learned has been based on biscuits made with butter.

High-fat butter, such as Kerrygold Butter, is best. The rich fat from the butter releases water when the biscuits are baking which is what contributes to the beautiful layers and flakiness that we love about biscuits. The fat also creates the softness we love in biscuits, which is my absolute favorite part.

Sourdough Biscuits

This might be a new favorite, friends! I just happened to test recipes for this particular biscuit because I had plenty of sourdough discard leftover from Quarantina, aka, Tina. I had already played around with sourdough cinnamon rolls and sourdough donuts (recipe coming soon). Biscuits never really crossed my mind until I began testing biscuit recipes.

Oh, my goodness, I’m glad I did! The flavor from these biscuits is so unique. One bite and I immediately think of sweetness from jams and jellies. The sourness from the sourdough pairs so well with it. These biscuits include butter, so the texture is reminiscent of the buttermilk biscuits with high-fat butter, but the flavor stands alone completely on its own.

Duck Fat Biscuits

Where do I even begin? These biscuits are a savory biscuit game changer! I have always dreamed of making a duck fat biscuit and I finally did it! Every inch of these biscuits deserves a spicy fried chicken thigh between them or some crispy duck bacon for a duck bacon BLT. I imagine this biscuit slathered with spicy cherry jam and start to dance a little in my seat. They are so good!

These biscuits are quite softer than a biscuit made with butter, so they need more flour and less buttermilk. Freezing and cutting the butter into pieces can be a little challenging, but it’s totally worth it. Don’t sell yourself short when you don’t see flaky layers when you pull them out of the oven. Duck fat won’t accomplish that same result, but the flavor and texture will totally motivate you to keep them on your biscuit-making rotation.

Biscuits w/ LARD and Shortening

I decided to test biscuits with Lard and Shortening as well. While I used butter flavor shortening, the biscuits were just not the same when it comes to flavor. Biscuits with shortening create beautiful layers and flakiness, but nothing compares to the taste of a biscuit made with real butter.

Biscuits made with lard did not impress me at all. I’m happy to fry my chicken in lard, but I don’t want a biscuit made with it. The texture seemed more like a muffin and the flavor was not decadent and rich.

I refrigerated both fats before using them to ensure they were cold and followed the same recipe I used for Buttermilk Biscuits w/ High Fat Butter.

Biscuits are one of the most comforting foods I know. While they originated from the south, I’m so glad the south reinvented them, and I’m so glad my cooking roots originate there. I hope you make each and every one of these recipes and find comfort, just like I did.

Want the tips for making the perfect biscuit? Click below to download a FREE Biscuit Tip Printable

TIPS FOR THE PERFECT BISCUIT

Tanorria's TableMay 30, 20203 Comments