The Mighty Beaten Biscuit

Some foods evoke strong and fond memories. We all have favorites from our childhood and often they are foods that were served during big holiday meals. I can’t say that I’ve incorporated many of them into my current holiday cooking plans. Many traditional Kentucky foods are foreign and unknown to those here in California. At a recent midday family gathering and brunch I served, along with other items, little Benedictine sandwiches. They were left virtually untouched by my California in-laws. In Kentucky they seemed to have always been a staple at weddings and brunches. Therefore, for holiday meals, I tend to stick with what the media has deemed classic holiday dishes. But those Kentucky foods live in my nostalgia and when the holidays do come around, part of me yearns to see them on my table.

One of these foods is a localized specialty of the south. I believe that it is most commonly found in Virginia, Maryland and Kentucky. In other parts of the country this food is literally unknown and its place, as a delicacy would probably be highly questioned. My husband, a North Dakota native, says that it closely resembles the “hard tack” that was used in the old days on ships as a form of bread that would keep well for weeks or months on end. In Kentucky we call them “beaten biscuits” and my grandmother prepared them for most of our holiday meals. She was my maternal grandmother, who was never referred to as Nanny, Granny, Grandmother, or even Grandma. Her 10 grandchildren, along with all her friends and acquaintances, always called her “Emmy.” 

For the unaware, a beaten biscuit is not very biscuit like except in size and shape. The hard surface is smooth as marble but the texture is more like a cracker. Just before the meal was served the beaten biscuits were warmed in the oven and then split in two and a small tad of butter was inserted between the halves. At the table they were usually eaten along with a very thin slice of Kentucky country ham.

The beaten biscuit dough was a simple mixture of flour, lard, salt, sugar, baking powder and milk. Sounds easy, right? No, not really. You see the dough needed to be processed; a task that by hand could take 30 minutes or more. But, my grandmother, as many others in the “modern’ era, had the benefit and help of a beaten biscuit machine to help her with the process of “beating” the dough. She kept the machine, an odd looking contraption, in a corner of her basement. Nowadays, believe it or not, the machine actually lives in my cousin’s home in Southern California. I’m sure that if it were discovered by some future archaeologist there, it’s identification would provide quite a puzzle as certainly it must be the only beaten biscuit machine in the entire state.

My old Cissy Gregg cookbook, given to me by Emmy, describes the processing of the beaten biscuit dough most vividly. “Get the dough in a ball, flatten it out and start running it through the machine which looks for all the world like a clothes wringer. Fold the dough over and run back between the rollers. Repeat this process until the dough is slick, glossy and talks back to you. The talking back comes from popping the blisters that the air forms in the dough. Roll quarter inch think and cut with a biscuit cutter.” These biscuits are then pierced with a fork and baked for up to an hour.

Since I don’t have the benefit of a beaten biscuit machine, I’ve never attempted to prepare this delicacy. The one time my grandmother came to visit us in California, she tucked a package of her treasured biscuits into her suitcase and I suppose that is the last time I was ever able to eat one of her beaten biscuits. Here is how Cissy Gregg, the food writer for the Louisville Courier Journal from about 1942 to 1962, describes the process if one does not have a machine with which to process the dough. “If the dough is beaten by hand you can use a flat iron, or even the edge of a heavy plate. Beat the dough out until it is about a quarter of and inch thick. Fold and beat again.” This process is repeated for 30 minutes or more!! Can you picture me standing there for over a half and hour beating dough with an iron or some other heavy object?

Now if you didn’t grow up eating beaten biscuits, or if perhaps you are not as nostalgic as myself, you would probably dismiss them as something more appropriate to use as air hockey pucks than to take a treasured place on the holiday table. Granted, they aren’t particularly flavorful or remarkable, but if by some miracle they appeared on my table this Thursday, I would be thrilled beyond compare.

Now, other Kentucky foods I miss and will never see the likes of out here in California are: Emmy’s Charlotte Russe, Transparent Pie, Chess Pie, Derby Pie, Salt Rising Bread and of course the beloved Kentucky Country Ham. I’ll write more about the country ham in a future blog because I am blessed to enjoy this food each Christmas. 

Please share what you know about beaten biscuits, beaten biscuit machines, Kentucky foods, or Emmy’s cooking by adding a comment. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Mary

P.S. I seem to have gotten the California relatives used to corn pudding so that will be served at my Thanksgiving table.