Beaten Biscuit (Old Style)

History

"Beaten Biscuit: (Old Style.)" is recorded in Martha McCulloch-Williams's "Dishes & Beverages of the Old South" (1913). It is defined by labour rather than ingredients: a quart of sifted flour, half a teaspoon of salt, a teacup of very cold lard cut in small, wet with cold water — "ice water is best" — into a very stiff dough. That dough is laid on a floured block or marble slab and given "one hundred strokes with a mallet or rolling pin," folded afresh as it beats thin and dredged with flour if it begins to stick.

Beating is what makes the biscuit; the dough is worked until it blisters, and there is no leavening but the air driven into it. In the households this book describes, that half-hour of hammering was done by enslaved and, later, hired Black cooks — the book itself records elsewhere that its author learned her kitchen from a cook it names only by a household title. The historical record does not document a specific earlier origin for this particular version.

"Dishes & Beverages of the Old South" is a mixture of recipes and plantation reminiscence. McCulloch-Williams was a white writer born near Clarksville, Tennessee, who grew up on a plantation before the Civil War, and the book's affection for that world goes unexamined in it: its dedication is "to our Mammys," and its opening holds that being "the best fed people in the world" let "we of the South Country... put up the best fight in history."

Ingredients

• 1 quart flour
• 0.5 teaspoon salt
• 1 teacup lard
• cold water

Instructions

1. Sift the flour into a bowl or tray and add salt. Cut the very cold lard into small pieces and work into the flour. Wet the mixture with cold water (ice water is best) until you reach a very stiff dough.
2. Lay the dough on a floured block, marble slab, or similar surface. Beat it one hundred strokes with a mallet or rolling pin. As the dough beats thin, fold it fresh and dredge with flour if it begins to stick. The purpose of this beating is to distribute air well through the mass, which will expand during baking to make the biscuit light. The dough should be firm, smooth, and very elastic.
3. Roll the dough to half-inch thickness. Cut out with a small round cutter and prick lightly all over the top. Bake in steady, moderate heat to a delicate brown. Avoid too hot an oven, which will scorch and blister the biscuits, and too cold an oven, which will make them hard and clammy. Aim for the Irishman's "middle exthrame."