KCB

Cowboy Biscuits

The two main types of biscuits made by chuckwagon cooks were soda and sourdough. Their only method for baking was the Dutch oven. This portable iron pot sat up from the fire on three small feet. This allowed air to flow through the bottom. The lid was lipped, making it easy to pile heated rocks on top for more even baking. It was reliable but had no scientific temperature controls.

"Baking powder biscuits
3 cups flour
6 teaspoons baking powder
3 tablespoon fat (lard or bacon drippings)
Approx. 1 cup of milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar

Sift together dry ingredients, then rub in lard with fingertips, until flaky. Pour about a cupful milk to moisten. Turn out on well floured board and pat about « inch tricknesss. Cut with biscuit cutter and place in greased dutch oven that has been slightly preheated. Biscuits should be touching but not crowded. Place preheated lid on oven and cover with hot coals. Place on bed of good red coals and let bake about twenty minutes or until brown on top and bottom."
--Clair Haight, Hashknife Outfit, Winslow AZ, 1922 (reprinted in: Chuck Wagon Cookin', by Stella Hughes [University of Arizona Press:Tuscon] 1974 (p. 123))

"Mrs. E.'s soda biscuits
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 tablespoons lard or margarine
3/4 to 1 cup milk

Sift dry ingredients together. Add and cut into flour mixture. Add milk, a little at a time, stirring with a fork. Add as much of the milk as necessary to make a very soft dough. Roll out 1/2 inch and cut with a small biscuit cutter. Bake at 425 degree for 15-20 minute. Makes 15 biscuits."

The above recipe is adapted from this original text (notice the lack of oven temp!): "1 quart flour, 2 heaping tablespoonfuls lard, 2 cups sweet milk, or you can take can milk, 1 teaspoonful soda, 2 teaspoonfuls cream of tartar, 1 teaspoonful salt. Rub soda and cream of tartar into flour dry. Next the lard. Lastly the milk. Work with as little handling as possible. The dough should be very soft. Cut more than half inch thick and bake in a quick oven."
---An Army Wife's Cookbook, Alice Kirk Grierson (recipes collected 1850s-1870s).   

                            

Biscuits

The answer to where biscuits originated depends on the kind of biscuit you are thinking about. In some countries the word biscuit historically refers to a hard cookie or cracker. In the United States biscuits are generally small soft, yeast-based products served with breakfast or dinner. They perform a variety of functions including filling (hungry bellies), topping (eg. pies) and sopping (eg. biscuits & gravy).

"Biscuit...The word derives from the Latin words "bis" (twice) plus "coctus" (cooked). In England a biscuit is what Americans usually call a cracker or cookie. The American meaning for biscuit was first noted by John Palmer in his Journal of Travels in the United States of North America, and in Lower Canada, (1818), and by 1828 Webster defined the confection as "a composition of flour and butter, made and baked in private families." In general usage such puffy leavened little breads were called "soda biscuits" or "baking-soda biscuits," in contrast to the unleavened cracker type....Recipes for soda biscuits are found in every ninetheenth-century cookbook, especially with reference to the cookery of the South...The South is also the home of the beaten biscuit, which was first mentioned in 1853...In 1930 General Mills began selling a packaged quick biscuit mix called Bisquick that was a great success and spawned many imitators."
---The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (page 29)  (Thanks to: Food Timeline)