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