Grits: Y/N, if Y: How?

[DanaC]

Even though I know that biscuits are what you guys eat with gravy, I still smile when I read it. Biscuits are pretty much always sweet for us.

[Sundae]

It took me years to work out what US biscuits were.

Even now I'm hazy (and I don't think they mean Bisto either Dana)

Ok that's it - I'm putting a trip to the US ahead of getting online at home - I gotta have me some grits, some biscuits & some gravy.

Anyone fancy an exchange visit?!

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

It took me years to work out what US biscuits were.

Even now I'm hazy (and I don't think they mean Bisto either Dana)

Extremely fatty unsweetened, bread, smaller than muffins.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Extremely fatty unsweetened, bread, smaller than muffins.

Oh the injustice! a well made biscuit is divine. It's like saying Alexander was a soldier. Well made biscuits can be as flaky as a croissant, though a bit more substantial. And there's nothing wrong with extremely fatty is there? As long as the fat is good fat. ie fresh cultured butter or lard, or both!

(An aside: Another thing I did which will no doubt earn me an additional aeon in hell. My MIL, who has serious "food disparagement" issues, declared my supremely awesome pie crust as being "too rich" because I use a 50/50 lard butter mix. She objects to the lard for psuedo health reasons, claiming the result is too heavy. yeah whatever. So I made my next piecrust with a 50/50 mixture of butter and manteca. She heartily approved of the change and declared it the best she had ever tasted, her tongue can't be fooled, etc. There are other stories of my switching "farm fresh eggs" from my firend's chickens with supermarket eggs from some giant egg ranch, of course she could tell that the supermarket eggs, no doubt going on 90 days, were fresh from the chicken's bum...)

I'm sure I'll meet a few other dwellars when I shuffle off this mortal coil; we can swap recipes.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

Oh the injustice! a well made biscuit is divine. It's like saying Alexander was a soldier. Well made biscuits can be as flaky as a croissant, though a bit more substantial. And there's nothing wrong with extremely fatty is there?

I never said it was bad! I love me a good biscuit. I was just trying to think of a way to differentiate a biscuit from, say, a roll.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

I never said it was bad! I love me a good biscuit. I was just trying to think of a way to differentiate a biscuit from, say, a roll.

speaking of which, do you remember Busterb's photo of deep fried biscuits?
They looked yum.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

I never said it was bad! I love me a good biscuit. I was just trying to think of a way to differentiate a biscuit from, say, a roll.

Biscuits are raised with baking powder, and are thus far quicker to make than a yeast-raised roll. Bread-in-a-hurry, you could say, and thus favored for breakfast. (Buttermilk biscuits may perhaps be raised with baking soda, reacting with the buttermilk's acid. I suppose, though, that using a proper double-acting baking powder instead of just soda bicarb may yield a fluffier, loftier biscuit that voluptuously takes up the butter.)

For any of our friends across the water who are still mystified: for what a Brit calls a biscuit, a Yank says "cookie."

and what's the gravy like?

A white gravy, with a little or a lot of ground meat in it, or perhaps crumbled bacon. Maybe shredded chipped beef like Armour sells in those little glass jars.

And the oatmeal haters are a pack of Martians, or else have been cursed with eating it overcooked into a gruel and unsalted -- or think instant oatmeal is as good as the stuff gets. News flash for you guys -- the less processed stuff is the kind worth eating. Steel-cut oatmeal/pinhead oatmeal, etc., taste largely the same, with a grainier texture.

Off to experiment with making brown sugar out of fructose for a lower glycemic load...

[DanaC]

and what's the gravy like?

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by DanaC

and what's the gravy like?

The gravy in sausage gravy is nothing like the gravy you make from roasting a piece of meat. It's really a white sauce (roux?).



Fry and crumble the sausage, throw it in a white sauce, and pour it over the biscuits, or serve it in a bowl on the side. MMmmmmmmm.



Do you Brits know "creamed dried beef", also known as "shit on a shingle"?

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

Do you Brits know "creamed dried beef", also known as "shit on a shingle"?

And don't look to US military chow halls for a properly done creamed chipped beef. They use ground beef which simply doesn't have the right tanginess to it. It has to be real chipped dried beef, not hamburger.

Big ole mess sergeant to dweeby little PFC: "It's a savory combination of select meats and tasty gravies, appetizingly poured over a shingle."

[Happy Monkey]

Is gravy all that different across the pond? Cooked down juices from the meat, with spices?

[DanaC]

That's like ours except a lot of people use packet gravy :P)

[Sundae]

and no spices!

[DanaC]

I put spices in my gravy.....oh hang on, no, just a little paprika actually. Mainly it's herbs.

[Kitsune]

"You never heard of grits?"
"Sure I've heard of grits. I just never actually *seen* a grit before."


Someone fill this thing in for me:

US "cookie" = UK "biscuit"
US "biscuit" = UK "_____"