On Sun 26 Jul 2009 08:24:53p, Paul M. Cook told us...

>
> "Damaeus" > wrote in message
> ...
>>I accidentally posted this first to rec.food-cooking....here's a post
>>for
>> this group:
>>
>> I like biscuits now and then, and I got the itch to have some a while
>> back when I was watching the Food Network and saw Tyler Florence's
>> version. He shocked me when he said to use vegetable shortening, his
>> reason being that he found that butter tends to burn, while shortening
>> doesn't.
>>
>> Well, here's the recipe, first of all:
>>
>> http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/t...lk-biscuits-re
>> cipe2/index.html
>>
>> Okay, I tried the recipe. I have to say they were not unedible, but
>> nowhere near the quality of biscuits I had made using butter instead of
>> shortening. These biscuits came out reminding me of store-bought,
>> canned biscuits. I blame the shortening, because all shortening is, is
>> hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils. I was skeptical of them
>> for that reason alone.
>>
>> That said, I had normally made biscuits with plain whole milk, not
>> buttermilk. We normally don't keep buttermilk in the house, but my
>> roommate had a craving for fried chicken with buttermilk batter, so
>> since we had some left, I made buttermilk biscuits, then buttermilk
>> pancakes a few days later. The biscuits did rise nicely, however. But
>> they turned out with a very yellow color inside, which surprised me
>> greatly. They were quite white going in, but you'd think I'd laced
>> them with turmeric, they came out so yellow. (I used unbleached
>> flour.)
>>
>> As for the doneness, there was an even, brown crust all the way around
>> it, that was almost cookie-like in texture, about a millimeter thick.
>> I layered it as he suggested on TV, and as a result, they simply pulled
>> apart like a biscuit-bun, no need for a knife to cut it in half.
>>
>> Once I get some more flour, I'm going to try buttermilk biscuits again
>> before it expires, using butter instead of shortening to compare.
>>
>> What is your experience with using butter versus shortening? So far,
>> I'm not impressed with shortening, but I may have to blame the
>> buttermilk if using butter in the next go-around results in the same
>> type of experience.
>>
>
>
> I've never found butter to work well in biscuits. You get a crispy
> rather than soft biscuit. I don't like the heavy taste anyway as I put
> butter on the biscuits. I have always used lard or vegetable
> shortening. Lard makes the best biscuits IMO.
>
> Paul

Lard + buttermilk + soft wheat flour (like White Lily) make the lightest
and best biscuits.

--
Wayne Boatwright
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Condensed milk is wonderful. I don't see how they can get a cow to
sit down on those little cans. Fred Allen