Cathead Biscuits - The Southern Lady Cooks - Old Fashioned Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What's the difference between a biscuit and a cathead biscuit? ›

For those not in the know, “cathead” is a Southernism for a biscuit that's as big as a cat's head. One could ponder if a less evocative size comparison might have been found, but the name just kind of works (and is certainly preferable to “tuna can biscuits” or “ashtray biscuits”).

Carla's secret to making flaky biscuits is simple: grate the butter. Grating the butter creates shards that are uniform in size, ensuring they're evenly mixed with the flour. But in order to properly grate it, you need to make sure your butter is cold — very, very cold.

Here's the Reason Biscuits in the South Really Are Better

The not-so-secret ingredient they rely upon is soft wheat flour. Soft wheat thrives in temperate, moist climates like that of the mid-Atlantic, so cooks in those areas have had access to its special flour for a long time.

Cathead biscuits are a feature of the Mississippi Delta. The name comes, apparently, from the size of these biscuits – the size of a cat's head – and that they are often misshapen and rough.

Homemade biscuits call for just six ingredients: all-purpose flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, butter, and milk. And then more butter once they're finished baking because of course we need more butter.

The word "biscuit" itself originates from the medieval Latin word biscoctus, meaning "twice-cooked". The modern Italian baked goods known as biscotti (also meaning "twice-cooked" in Italian) most closely resemble the Medieval Latin item and cooking technique.

The key to making great biscuits is to use cold butter. We dice up the butter and then refrigerate it until ready to use. Cold butter will produce the fluffiest layers in your biscuits. Do not over-mix – once liquids touch the flour, mix just until dry ingredients are moistened.

SouthernKitchen.com says, "Ask any Southern chef or sagacious biscuit grandma and you'll hear a pattern emerge: they all swear by White Lily flour."

Biscuit recipes tend to be egg-free, this makes them drier and the lack of protein to bind the mix helps achieve that crumbly texture. For super light, crumbly biscuits try grating or pushing the yolks of hard-boiled eggs through a sieve into the biscuit dough.

What makes biscuits taste better? ›

Sugar and Salt: Add flavor. We don't add a lot of sugar (just 1 tablespoon). Cold Butter: I love using European-style salted butter, like Kerrygold or Plugra, since they make our biscuits tender and delicious. If you don't have European salted butter, plain butter works (salted or unsalted).

Just as important as the fat is the liquid used to make your biscuits. Our Buttermilk Biscuit recipe offers the choice of using milk or buttermilk. Buttermilk is known for making biscuits tender and adding a zippy tang, so we used that for this test.

Crisco may be beneficial for other baking applications, but for biscuit making, butter is the ultimate champion!

Mason Dixie Biscuit Co.

And the flavors were more from-scratch as well. According to Josh Rink in the Test Kitchen, “This brand feels like it uses real ingredients like a homemade biscuit.” And Josh is right: Flour, buttermilk, butter, milk, sugar, baking powder and salt are the only ingredients Mason Dixie Biscuit Co.

The main ingredients for biscuit making are flours, sugars and fats. To these ingredients, various small ingredients may be added for leavening, flavour and texture. The principle ingredient of biscuits is wheat flour. Wheat flour contains proteins including gliadin and glutenin.

Technically, cats can eat human biscuits in moderation, but it's not recommended as, like any other bread products, they are full of carbs and empty calories that will make your kitty pile on the pounds and contribute to nutritional deficiencies in the long term. So, better not feed your cat biscuits.

Polypropylene is a naturally good moisture barrier and its strength is good for sealing. Most polypropylene films used for biscuit packaging are OPP films. Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made from regenerated cellulose.