Buttermilk Biscuits

I was shocked, shocked, I tell you, when I heard from a fairly well-known local food lover (and reader of this blog) confessed that he had been in the US for 20 years and never had homemade biscuits! Well, the madness stops now. While making a huge pot of beef stew over the holidays (in my new Dutch oven!), I made a quick batch of biscuits using my mom's (and grandmother's) recipe. The copy I have is, oddly, in my sister's handwriting, so you can tell this one's been passed around.

Baking Powder Biscuits

3 cups flour (plus more for working)
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
6 tbsp Crisco (or butter, or lard)
1 1/4 buttermilk*

*Buttermilk works best, but in case you're short, the conversion for "fake" buttermilk is to use 1 tbsp of white vinegar and make up the remaining cup with regular milk. Once it curdles, you're ready to go.

Mix all dry ingredients. Cut in shortening with knife until mixture is crumbly. Add milk and mix well. Roll out dough on a floured board to 1/2 inch-3/4 inch thick, and cut out. Place on a greased cookie sheet and cook for 20 minutes in oven preheated to 400 degrees.

These biscuits freeze well and while they're equally good with beef stew or chicken and dumplings, they're really, *really* good with butter and honey.