ENC-Style Buttermilk Biscuits
Deep Run Roots
These are legit, hand-formed biscuits like you'd get in most Eastern North Carolina homes. I have watched my mother-in-law make these, but have never tried myself before now. I need practice. (And a bag of cracklins to put in the middle.)
The ingredients are easy, but you probably won't master the technique on your first batch. They are totally worth trying over and over until you do, though, and even when you mess up, the results are tasty!
You can find the full recipe here: https://www.vivianhoward.com/gorging-on-life/biscuits
Captions
[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather
[00:07]: today we're going to be working out of
[00:09]: the deep brown roots cookbook vivian
[00:10]: howard's
[00:11]: cookbook and we're going to be making
[00:13]: eastern north carolina style
[00:15]: buttermilk biscuits which is enc style
[00:18]: buttermilk biscuits in the book
[00:20]: if you're looking um and
[00:24]: i have to say i'm not great at biscuits
[00:30]: um mixing them by hand i do it i do
[00:32]: biscuits relatively often but i do a
[00:34]: cheater biscuit
[00:37]: so this is going to be interesting
[00:40]: and these are not rolled biscuits you
[00:42]: don't roll them out and cut them
[00:44]: you form them by hand which is exactly
[00:47]: what my husband's grandmother and his
[00:49]: mother have done
[00:51]: forever but i have never tried it um so
[00:54]: this is this is going to be an
[00:56]: interesting one for me and we're gonna
[00:58]: see
[00:58]: how it how it works out she says in the
[01:01]: book that this takes some practice
[01:03]: which i have not had so
[01:06]: we're just gonna have some kindness for
[01:09]: ourselves and i'm sure it will still be
[01:12]: fine
[01:12]: even if they don't look beautiful right
[01:15]: so uh the first thing
[01:18]: i've got my oven preheated to 375
[01:22]: and you want a rack in the lower third
[01:23]: and you want the top rack so i've got
[01:25]: that all set up
[01:28]: and so we're going to i'm going to do
[01:30]: this in a little bit of a different
[01:31]: order than she has in the
[01:32]: book because well i only want to deal
[01:35]: with the lard once and get my hands
[01:37]: messy once
[01:38]: so first i've got the flour
[01:41]: now you're you're supposed to sift the
[01:43]: flour and all the other ingredients
[01:45]: um i'm going to use this sieve
[01:49]: instead of like the traditional sifter
[01:51]: just because
[01:53]: i find it easier and my sifter gets kind
[01:56]: of
[01:57]: stuck and this is just a whole lot
[01:59]: easier
[02:00]: um so i've got all my flour
[02:05]: that i've pre-measured and you're not
[02:07]: going to use not all of this flour is
[02:09]: going to be in your biscuits so i was
[02:11]: not
[02:13]: super careful about my measurements
[02:15]: because
[02:16]: you mix as much flour into the wet
[02:19]: ingredients
[02:20]: as you need anyway so i've got some
[02:23]: baking powder
[02:24]: baking powder yes baking powder not
[02:26]: baking soda that i'm going to sift in
[02:27]: here as well and i've got
[02:29]: table salt that i'm going to sift as
[02:31]: well i didn't use kosher salt because it
[02:34]: doesn't sift very well and i just don't
[02:36]: think it works very well
[02:37]: in these sorts of um
[02:41]: dishes i think it it doesn't dissolve
[02:45]: doesn't get get a chance to dissolve
[02:46]: very well so there's my sifted dry
[02:49]: ingredients and we're going to make a
[02:51]: well
[02:53]: in the middle where we're going to put
[02:56]: our wet ingredients and now i'm going to
[02:59]: deal with
[03:00]: my lard oh also i do want to say
[03:04]: that salt she calls for two-thirds of a
[03:07]: teaspoon and i don't know anybody i
[03:09]: don't think
[03:09]: in my whole life have i ever had a
[03:12]: one-third
[03:13]: teaspoon measuring spoon so i just had
[03:16]: to eyeball it
[03:18]: like does anybody have that let me know
[03:22]: because i have never in my life had a 1
[03:24]: 3 teaspoon measuring spoon in my set
[03:27]: anyway so um i have some buttermilk here
[03:31]: buttermilk biscuits and i'm going to
[03:33]: measure my lard with the displacement
[03:35]: method
[03:36]: so i already have the measured amount
[03:40]: of buttermilk and i'm going to put in
[03:42]: the amount of lard
[03:44]: that i need so the buttermilk will show
[03:47]: me
[03:49]: that i've got the right amount of lard
[03:51]: because
[03:52]: lard being a solid fat is a hard thing
[03:55]: to measure
[03:57]: so i'm just looking to make sure
[04:01]: that i have
[04:04]: the right amount almost there
[04:08]: [Music]
[04:12]: all right wait a little bit more a
[04:15]: little bit more
[04:17]: so that's another good method to
[04:20]: use to measure these kind of ingredients
[04:23]: if it doesn't matter if it mixes with
[04:25]: the liquid ingredients you can measure
[04:26]: it
[04:27]: this way the next thing i do and she
[04:30]: says to use your hand
[04:31]: so i'm going to do that and this is why
[04:35]: i didn't do this earlier to
[04:38]: grease your baking sheet with
[04:42]: lard so i'm gonna do that
[04:50]: and i don't think i have quite enough
[04:57]: i think lard has kind of made a comeback
[04:59]: for a while
[04:60]: everybody used vegetable shortening
[05:03]: because they thought it was better for
[05:04]: them but now um
[05:07]: you know new studies and lard actually
[05:10]: might be better for you even though
[05:13]: i don't know animal fat who knows
[05:15]: whatever
[05:16]: lard is traditional and that's what
[05:18]: we're going to use so now we're going to
[05:20]: now she says to put the lard in first it
[05:22]: doesn't really matter but i'm gonna
[05:24]: pull the lard out and then pour the
[05:27]: buttermilk in and we're supposed to make
[05:29]: sure it stays in its little well
[05:32]: as much as we can so it looks like i
[05:35]: need to make my will a little bit bigger
[05:38]: to fit all of this in
[05:42]: my hands are going to be totally messy
[05:43]: from this anyway so it's not a big deal
[05:45]: if they get messy now
[05:47]: you know hey now
[05:54]: all right because we're going to mix
[05:55]: this with our hands
[05:59]: all right so the first thing
[06:03]: now all of this is is excuse me
[06:07]: techniques that are things that you
[06:10]: probably need to practice
[06:12]: and i have not but so first you try to
[06:15]: mix
[06:15]: the buttermilk and the
[06:20]: lard until it is relatively homogenous
[06:25]: without mixing in much flour and i'm not
[06:29]: sure how that's going to work
[06:31]: but we'll see especially since you know
[06:33]: lard when it's cold
[06:34]: with the cold milk my lard was in the
[06:36]: refrigerator
[06:37]: um it's hard to mix
[06:42]: but i'm gonna do my best
[06:46]: and use your dominant hand for this
[06:49]: she says in the book which is you know
[06:52]: it's probably the one you'll be the best
[07:01]: with
[07:09]: i probably should have watched a video
[07:10]: of this before i started but
[07:13]: i didn't i am guessing that she has one
[07:18]: from her uh show
[07:21]: a chef's life considering this is a very
[07:25]: basic
[07:26]: uh southern thing that you know
[07:30]: does and she says uh
[07:38]: her friend lily showed her how to do
[07:43]: this
[07:44]: all right i think that's relatively
[07:46]: homogeneous
[07:48]: so now we're going to um start moving
[07:50]: the wet mixture
[07:52]: back and forth to and fro in the flower
[07:57]: so we're trying to now we're trying to
[07:59]: start getting some flour
[08:00]: incorporated
[08:09]: but very gently so the thing about
[08:11]: biscuits
[08:12]: is being very gently with gentle with it
[08:14]: because you don't want to overwork
[08:17]: the gluten because biscuits are soft
[08:21]: um unlike bread where you actually want
[08:24]: to
[08:25]: work the gluten
[08:29]: all right turn it over and do the
[08:33]: [Music]
[08:40]: we're same to get an actual sort of
[08:42]: dough here
[08:50]: she says she likes to do once she gets
[08:51]: going she does a motion that looks kind
[08:53]: of like a one-handed need with her
[08:56]: thumb
[09:06]: i've got it all stuck to my fingers
[09:09]: which is
[09:11]: you know unavoidable
[09:31]: all right so we're going to keep doing
[09:34]: this
[09:34]: until the dough is no longer sticky
[09:38]: but still soft and tender
[09:55]: i feel like i still have a lot of flour
[09:57]: not incorporated
[09:59]: and she says you'll have um about
[10:02]: half a cup but there's a lot of factors
[10:06]: it depends on how hydrated your flower
[10:08]: is
[10:08]: how humid your house is
[10:11]: etc etc i probably shouldn't be doing
[10:14]: that because that's a little bit too
[10:16]: [Music]
[10:17]: needy
[10:19]: so
[10:22]: i'm uh
[10:25]: i feel like i'm almost there because
[10:28]: it's not sticky anymore
[10:31]: but it's also not a whole ball yet
[10:37]: but i think
[10:41]: i'll be using both of my hands anyway
[10:57]: all right well seems pretty
[11:01]: dry at this point and i hope it's fine
[11:04]: so we're going to start
[11:06]: making our biscuits and this is um
[11:09]: like i said this is how my husband's
[11:12]: grandmother and his
[11:13]: mother do this they are eastern from
[11:15]: eastern north carolina
[11:16]: but i've never done it so
[11:20]: it still seems pretty dry at this point
[11:23]: but
[11:25]: just be making a ball a golf ball sized
[11:28]: piece
[11:28]: roll it up with your hand and pinch the
[11:31]: bottom together
[11:32]: now if you are lucky
[11:36]: uh grandma has put cracklins in the
[11:39]: biscuit
[11:40]: and then pinch the bottom together but
[11:42]: we're not doing that today
[11:45]: so we put that in the corner and then
[11:49]: uh flatten it until it is about half an
[11:52]: inch thick
[11:54]: and do that again
[11:58]: i'm supposed to make about 10 i don't
[12:01]: know i don't know if my biscuits are
[12:02]: gonna be big or small or
[12:04]: what we'll see
[12:08]: this one looks like a little bit smaller
[12:09]: than the other one so
[12:23]: all right whatever and now you do want
[12:25]: to make them
[12:26]: uh touch because biscuits like to
[12:30]: snuggle
[12:30]: i think i got that from stella parks
[12:34]: serious eats i think or t-shirts that
[12:37]: say that
[12:40]: i keep wanting to smush it when it's in
[12:42]: my hands
[12:43]: because that's what i usually do um with
[12:46]: my cheater biscuits
[12:49]: looks like i might get about eight or
[12:51]: nine so almost
[12:53]: almost right sort of to be expected
[12:57]: um that there is extra in the bowl
[13:00]: and i've always said i feel like
[13:04]: my flower is drier
[13:07]: and needs more liquid so that would make
[13:09]: sense
[13:10]: okay so we're going to i'm going to wash
[13:13]: my hands and then we're going to put
[13:14]: this
[13:15]: in the lower third of the oven and bake
[13:16]: it for 18
[13:18]: minutes and then
[13:21]: we're going to put it on the top rack
[13:22]: and bake it for seven minutes
[13:25]: until they're golden brown and look
[13:28]: hopefully decent so i'll let you know
[13:31]: what they look like
[13:32]: when they're done
[13:41]: on this episode of cooking the books
[13:42]: with heather you watch me make eastern
[13:44]: north carolina-style buttermilk biscuits
[13:46]: these are not hard
[13:50]: but they certainly require a technique
[13:52]: uh
[13:53]: that probably takes some time to master
[13:57]: uh mine were not pretty but they were
[13:59]: still delicious
[14:00]: they probably could have been cooked for
[14:02]: a little bit longer the tops weren't
[14:05]: um very brown and the middles were maybe
[14:07]: a little bit
[14:10]: not really underdone but just a little
[14:11]: moister than
[14:13]: you know usual i guess
[14:17]: um i will see if i can find a video
[14:20]: of her or maybe her friend lily whoever
[14:24]: um doing making these and i will put
[14:28]: that link below or right here
[14:31]: if i can find that because i think i
[14:34]: need to work on my technique
[14:35]: but even if you need work on it they
[14:38]: will still be delicious
[14:40]: um whole family enjoyed them pretty much
[14:43]: all gone i think
[14:44]: yeah we have one left so everybody ate
[14:46]: two um i served mine with
[14:48]: uh some sausage gravy which is a milk
[14:51]: based gravy that is
[14:52]: also berry eastern north carolina um
[14:56]: it's the kind of kind of the same gravy
[14:58]: that you get on
[15:00]: um country style steak
[15:04]: not country style steak chicken fried
[15:06]: steak that's what it is with that
[15:08]: it's a lot of pepper and it's white
[15:11]: my kids don't like that they there's
[15:13]: plain we also ate them with
[15:15]: strawberry jam which i've made on this
[15:17]: channel before and butter
[15:20]: it was just it was they were really good
[15:22]: i think
[15:23]: if you enjoy biscuits it is worth
[15:28]: figuring out this technique and even
[15:30]: while you're doing it
[15:32]: you can eat the results so if you
[15:35]: enjoyed
[15:36]: watching me make this please give me a
[15:37]: thumbs up uh
[15:39]: hit the subscribe button and come back
[15:40]: and watch me make something else