Polk Camp taught me alot this week, mainly how much I've undervalued the history and importance of that staple of all good southern meals, the biscuit.
You think you've made biscuits from scratch before? Just listen to how Susie Jackson and her daughter Suzannah taught me and about 18 youngsters to make biscuits, via 1820.
Wake in the wee dawn hours of the morning before the sun rises and dress in a long dress with long sleeves worn over your shift that also doubles as a nightgown. Add pantalets and apron. Don't bother bathing, it's only been a few months since your last bath. You won't need another one for quite some time.
Brush your hair and pull it back using animal fat as a gel to keep the stray hairs in place. Add cap.
Clean ashes from fireplace in kitchen and transfer to barrel for making lye used for soap. Collect kindling and start fire using wood previously chopped. Fire must die down to burning embers to bake, so in the meantime, feed the chickens, gather the eggs, walk to the well two blocks away and draw water. Milk the cows.
When embers are hot and flames have gone, begin gathering your ingredients and utensils for biscuits.
Sift 2 cups of flour into a large bowl, removing bugs and debris.
Request sugar chest key from the lady of the house or head servant in order to retrieve sugar cone to grate 2 teaspoons sugar.
Add 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and any fresh herbs snips from the garden if you like.
Add 1 cup lard and 1 1/2 cups warm, fresh, unpasteurized, unhomogenized milk with cream to moisten and form dough ball.
Turn out dough onto a floured tabletop and knead lightly before rolling into a sheet about 1/4 inch thick.
Using favorite biscuit cutter, cut biscuit rounds and place in well-greased pie tin.
Grab your wrought-iron dutch oven and set in the bottom a flat rock or another pie tin upside down to form a cooking rack 2-3 inches above the bottom of the dutch oven. This will help keep the biscuits from burning.
Set pie tin containing biscuits on top of rack and add lid. Set entire dutch oven in the burning coals.
Using a cloth, towell or the hem of your dress to keep from burning your hand, rotate the dutch oven in the coals every 5 minutes for even baking. Be careful not to ignite the cloth or your clothing, a very common hazard in 1820.
Bake for 20 minutes until biscuits are hot and flaky. Remove from fire and transfer biscuits to towel-lined basket to keep warm until remainder of breakfast is prepared.
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