Appalachian Cooking Biscuit Mix

This Appalachian cooking biscuit mix will be found on the pantry shelves of most old-fashioned cooks. You don’t even have to be old-fashioned to have it, just a cook who wants to be prepared for quick and easy biscuits. These are as good as they look! Go ahead and give them a try.

Grandma used to make this up in bulk and storing it quart jars marked, “biscuit mix.” I can still smell the fresh biscuits that would wake us up on any given day when we were at grandma’s house.

Let’s gather our ingredients! If you have 2 quart jars you aren’t using, those would work great!

Ingredients for Appalachian Cooking Biscuit Mix

6 cups flour
1 cup shortening
1 T salt
3 T sugar
3 T baking powder (make sure it’s not out of date)

Instructions for Making the Biscuit Mix

Mix dry ingredients thoroughly. Mix in shortening with fingers until mixture is the consistency of fine gravel. Makes about 7
cups and will store at room temperature in your quart jars or in a tightly sealed container for up to 3 months.

When It’s Time to Make the Biscuits

To use this Appalachian cooking biscuit mix, add 1 cup of milk and 2 Tbsp of butter or margarine to 2 cups of mix.
Stir until blended.
Knead until smooth and elastic.
Shape into biscuits and bake in hot Dutch oven or other cast iron skillet until golden brown and doubled in size (about 15
minutes). Makes a dozen.

Check out this neat biscuit cast iron pan on Amazon. It’s less than $30.

Notes on Using the Appalachian Cooking Biscuit Mix

*Make sure the sides touch each other and they fit tight in the pan if you want them to be tall biscuits. Otherwise, they will spread out instead of rising up.

*You can substitute heavy cream for the butter and milk.

*When cutting biscuits, do it in one motion. Press down and DO NOT spin or twirl to cut. Just press straight down and lift. Twirling the cutter can result in the sides being pressed together and may not rise.

Mary Stage