Bacon Fat Biscuits

The biscuit is the ultimate side bread. By side bread, I mean bread that you typically serve with a meal. There’s nothing better than eating a flaky buttery biscuit with a nice piece of fried chicken and some mashed potatoes. Biscuits in North America mean something entirely different to the biscuits served back in the U.K. So biscuits in the U.K. are typically dry and hard, resembling a cookie. Meanwhile, biscuits over in North America are delicious soft buttery carb balls that increase your waistline and your happiness simultaneously.

The word biscuit comes from the Latin root of bis & coctus meaning (baked-twice), this makes sense when you think of biscuits in terms of the U.K. version. Biscuits were originally once baked through, and then allowed to dry out by baking them once more at a lower heat in the oven. Biscuits were popularized in the Americas after early European settlers were looking for a cheaper alternative to bread. How are biscuits cheaper than bread? Well you don’t need yeast, so they’re much easier to make and cheaper to produce. By the turn of the 19th century, Americans were making biscuits are a staple of their diets as money was tight and resources were sparse. Another reason was that biscuits would keep longer than bread and they served as a perfect vessel for gravy.

For me biscuits just bring back good childhood memories of eating KFC biscuits with fried chicken. Being a Iranian-American kid, homemade biscuits were not really an option or a viable reality. So we did what any good immigrant family does, we visit the Colonel at KFC to give us a dose of Americana. The biscuits at KFC are still delicious, but back then they were out of this world good to my adolescent taste buds. If it were up to me, all sandwiches would be served on a biscuit, there’s nothing better than biting into a fried chicken sandwich that’s served on a warm biscuit. It’s like heaven on earth.

I got this recipe idea from the folks over at America’s Test Kitchen, they always have the best way of making stuff. I had a plethora of bacon fat on my hands so as any logical home cook would do, I said, “I might as well make some biscuits with them.” The bacon fat adds a yummy smokey pork flavor to the biscuits that you wouldn’t otherwise get. The recipe is simple and takes no time to make.

Recipe

Ingredients

2 Cups of All Purpose Flour

8 Tablespoons of Bacon Fat (or Butter) (Melted)

1 Cup 2% Milk

2 Tsp. Baking Powder

1 Tsp. Salt

1/2 Tsp. Baking Soda

Method

Step 1: Pre-heat oven to 425F

Step 2: Mix your dry ingredients together

Step 3: Mix the melted butter and milk together until clumps of fat form in milk (put in fridge if necessary)

Step 4: Combine ingredients together in large mixing bowl

Step 5: Use a greased quarter cup measuring cup to place biscuit batter on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Step 6: Bake in oven until tops are golden brown, about 15 minutes.  Brush tops with melted butter as they cool. Serve and enjoy!