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Dora’s Drop Biscuits: My Aunt Made Them Quickly, Delicious & Filling With Only 4 Ingredients
posted Tuesday, 20 September 2005
Dora’s Drop Biscuits: My Aunt Made Them Quickly, Delicious & Filling With Only 4 Ingredients
This article is dedicated to my maternal aunt, Dora, who raised me from the age of 2 months. She was a great cook and let me watch her perform her artistry. But Dora never wanted me “messing” in her kitchen. When I was very young, we would go visit my mother, Dora's youngest sister, Elveta. I would say, “Elveta, can I mess?” She would give me some flour, cornmeal and water. I would mix it up, make some pitifully small rolls out of the “mess”, bake them in the oven, then feed the end result to the birds. I enjoyed it immensely. I also “messed” in Glade Spring, VA, in Mrs. Meredith’s kitchen. My family is from Glade, and my aunt Dora “mommy”, my uncle Will “daddy”, and I went there every summer. We fed the birds there also.
So since about the age of 4, I have been a frustrated chef. When I was in the 11th grade, my aunt Dora started working as a domestic. I would leave school promptly at 3pm, rush home, make Aunt Jemima pancakes (I wasn’t confident enough for waffles yet), and clean up before my aunt (whom I called “mommy”) could return home from her work. She always knew what I had done, but it was too late for her to do anything except look mean and ornery.
When I entered Howard University in Washington, DC, in 1960, I bought a hot plate, placed a blanket at the base of my dormitory door to prevent the smells from my “cooking experiments” to permeate the 5th floor of Drew Hall. It worked fine until one day I had to cook fast so I could catch the train to Cincinnati for spring break. I forgot the blanket. The floor director knocked on my door saying, “Mr. Tabacco, I know you are cooking in there. You know the rules.” When I returned from spring break, I disposed of the hot plate.
Two years later, I lived off campus. My cousin, Hazel, got me a basement efficiency in the home of one of her friends. I had my own stove – yes, you had to light it with a match; but did I care! Louis Pasteur Tabacco was born! Being a self-taught “chef” ain’t easy! Failures outnumber successes. But stubbornness is a virtue. One day Hazel’s youngest son, Greg, came over while I was “performing a culinary experiment”. I asked him to light my oven with a match. He shook like a hurricane with fear. Then he asked me what that nutlike thing was on the table. Obviously he didn’t watch Hazel cook much, the way I watched my aunt Dora. Smiling, I informed him it was a “Ubangi Nut” and offered him one. He accepted, bit down on it, and made the most awful looking face I ever saw. I don’t know why Greg didn’t like the raw garlic clove.
One final chapter in the odyssey of a “self-taught culinary master”. I visited my brother, Bill, his wife, Carlene, and their 6 kids – 3 boys and 3 girls in Cincinnati. I took my chess computer with me that trip. I was in the kitchen, making my famous “Double Piza Americano” with Velveeta cheese. Yes, I know that ain’t pizza – a few Italians have informed me of that. That’s why I only use 1 z in “Piza”. But I forgot to mention that I often adapt recipes. The dry ricotta or cottage cheese called for in the original recipe was awful. But the double crust and technique were winners. So what else could I do but adapt the recipe and substitute my favorite cheese of all time – Velveeta. Back to my nieces and nephews. I was in Carlene’s kitchen making the “piza” with the three boys, while the 3 girls were in the living room playing chess with my computer. Enough of stereotypes!
Dora’s Drop Biscuits
I had several failures before I finally got the ingredient amounts right. I had watched her make these mountains of joy, and I knew the 4 ingredients; I just didn’t know the proportions. The failures came from using too much milk; I knew how the dough was supposed to look. As I kept decreasing the milk, I finally got her recipe right.
Dora’s Drop Biscuits
Basic .........................Double .....Triple Recipe
1C .....Bisquick ............2C ............3C
1 .......egg ...................2 ..............3
2T .....butter, melted ...4T ............6T
1/6C ..milk .................1/3C .........1/2C
Key:
1/6C = one-sixth cup
4T = 4 Tablespoons
butter unsalted "always"- I NEVER USE MARGARINE!
egg: large
milk: whole milk
1. Mix egg and milk; combine with Bisquick
2. Add melted butter to stiff batter
3. Butter a cookie sheet or other flat, low-sided oven-worthy cake pan
4. Spoon biscuit batter on prepared cookie sheet in mountain-shape
(it will be stiff if you don’t add too much milk, as I did initially)
5. Bake 10-15 minutes @400ºF., until golden and baked through
6. Serve with butter and jelly or apple butter
√Source: Dora Grasty (maiden name)
PS I have never gotten her sage stuffing right! So when I publish my “Turkey In A Sac’ recipe for Thanksgiving, you will have to supply your own stuffing recipe. I do a mean job with her Parker House rolls. You will see that recipe too. Although it isn’t really her recipe.
Will, Dora, and a young “Tabacco”
T.A.B.A.C.C.O. (Truth About Business And Congressional Crimes Organization)
This article is dedicated to my maternal aunt, Dora, who raised me from the age of 2 months. She was a great cook and let me watch her perform her artistry. But Dora never wanted me “messing” in her kitchen. When I was very young, we would go visit my mother, Dora's youngest sister, Elveta. I would say, “Elveta, can I mess?” She would give me some flour, cornmeal and water. I would mix it up, make some pitifully small rolls out of the “mess”, bake them in the oven, then feed the end result to the birds. I enjoyed it immensely. I also “messed” in Glade Spring, VA, in Mrs. Meredith’s kitchen. My family is from Glade, and my aunt Dora “mommy”, my uncle Will “daddy”, and I went there every summer. We fed the birds there also.
So since about the age of 4, I have been a frustrated chef. When I was in the 11th grade, my aunt Dora started working as a domestic. I would leave school promptly at 3pm, rush home, make Aunt Jemima pancakes (I wasn’t confident enough for waffles yet), and clean up before my aunt (whom I called “mommy”) could return home from her work. She always knew what I had done, but it was too late for her to do anything except look mean and ornery.
When I entered Howard University in Washington, DC, in 1960, I bought a hot plate, placed a blanket at the base of my dormitory door to prevent the smells from my “cooking experiments” to permeate the 5th floor of Drew Hall. It worked fine until one day I had to cook fast so I could catch the train to Cincinnati for spring break. I forgot the blanket. The floor director knocked on my door saying, “Mr. Tabacco, I know you are cooking in there. You know the rules.” When I returned from spring break, I disposed of the hot plate.
Two years later, I lived off campus. My cousin, Hazel, got me a basement efficiency in the home of one of her friends. I had my own stove – yes, you had to light it with a match; but did I care! Louis Pasteur Tabacco was born! Being a self-taught “chef” ain’t easy! Failures outnumber successes. But stubbornness is a virtue. One day Hazel’s youngest son, Greg, came over while I was “performing a culinary experiment”. I asked him to light my oven with a match. He shook like a hurricane with fear. Then he asked me what that nutlike thing was on the table. Obviously he didn’t watch Hazel cook much, the way I watched my aunt Dora. Smiling, I informed him it was a “Ubangi Nut” and offered him one. He accepted, bit down on it, and made the most awful looking face I ever saw. I don’t know why Greg didn’t like the raw garlic clove.
One final chapter in the odyssey of a “self-taught culinary master”. I visited my brother, Bill, his wife, Carlene, and their 6 kids – 3 boys and 3 girls in Cincinnati. I took my chess computer with me that trip. I was in the kitchen, making my famous “Double Piza Americano” with Velveeta cheese. Yes, I know that ain’t pizza – a few Italians have informed me of that. That’s why I only use 1 z in “Piza”. But I forgot to mention that I often adapt recipes. The dry ricotta or cottage cheese called for in the original recipe was awful. But the double crust and technique were winners. So what else could I do but adapt the recipe and substitute my favorite cheese of all time – Velveeta. Back to my nieces and nephews. I was in Carlene’s kitchen making the “piza” with the three boys, while the 3 girls were in the living room playing chess with my computer. Enough of stereotypes!
Dora’s Drop Biscuits
I had several failures before I finally got the ingredient amounts right. I had watched her make these mountains of joy, and I knew the 4 ingredients; I just didn’t know the proportions. The failures came from using too much milk; I knew how the dough was supposed to look. As I kept decreasing the milk, I finally got her recipe right.
Dora’s Drop Biscuits
Basic .........................Double .....Triple Recipe
1C .....Bisquick ............2C ............3C
1 .......egg ...................2 ..............3
2T .....butter, melted ...4T ............6T
1/6C ..milk .................1/3C .........1/2C
Key:
1/6C = one-sixth cup
4T = 4 Tablespoons
butter unsalted "always"- I NEVER USE MARGARINE!
egg: large
milk: whole milk
1. Mix egg and milk; combine with Bisquick
2. Add melted butter to stiff batter
3. Butter a cookie sheet or other flat, low-sided oven-worthy cake pan
4. Spoon biscuit batter on prepared cookie sheet in mountain-shape
(it will be stiff if you don’t add too much milk, as I did initially)
5. Bake 10-15 minutes @400ºF., until golden and baked through
6. Serve with butter and jelly or apple butter
√Source: Dora Grasty (maiden name)
PS I have never gotten her sage stuffing right! So when I publish my “Turkey In A Sac’ recipe for Thanksgiving, you will have to supply your own stuffing recipe. I do a mean job with her Parker House rolls. You will see that recipe too. Although it isn’t really her recipe.
Will, Dora, and a young “Tabacco”
T.A.B.A.C.C.O. (Truth About Business And Congressional Crimes Organization)
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