pioneer biscuits

[snakeman]

I would like to start becoming more self reliant when it comes to food, and I have heard a lot about the mountain men eating biscuits. Other than flour and water, What all did they put in them?

[crashdive123]

Not sure if this is what you're looking for but here's one way.

PIONEER BISCUITS

2 c. flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. shortening
2/3 c. milk

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cut in shortening; add milk and mix well. Roll out to about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. Cut out with biscuit cutter or use a water glass that you oiled and dusted with flour. Put in a greased and floured pan and bake at 450 degrees or until golden brown.

I will add, that my favorite biscuits are made from Bisquick - I use it often.

[Rick]

As far as I know, Snakeman, the true mountain men carried their own yeast. We've posted on natural yeast before. Here's a link I started last year.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...ighlight=yeast

Obviously, maintaining wild yeast is a bit harder than package yeast but will yield a better texture than fried bread or flat breads in general.

Are you looking to maintain your own yeast or just want a recipe that you can use in the wilderness?

[Alpine_Sapper]

As far as I know, Snakeman, the true mountain men carried their own yeast. We've posted on natural yeast before. Here's a link I started last year.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...ighlight=yeast

Obviously, maintaining wild yeast is a bit harder than package yeast but will yield a better texture than fried bread or flat breads in general.

Are you looking to maintain your own yeast or just want a recipe that you can use in the wilderness?

typically biscuits are chemically leavened with baking powder. I've never heard of using yeast for biscuits. I always thought that was because biscuits are considered a "quick bread" and typically yeast leavened breads take a lot longer due to the rise-knead-rise-shape cycle. The recipe crash uses is a good recipe for rolled biscuits. My wife makes a slight variation of this all the time and they are big and fluffy. I do the same thing with bannock, but instead of rolling it out I just pat it into a pie plate and bake it (which is traditionally called bannock, scones for individual slices) or fry it, whatever. very versatile. But you can get buy with like 2 cups of flour, 6tsp of baking soda, some salt, shortening or lard (bacon grease), and some water. I make up little baggies like this to use in the field with only a half recipe. If you have it you can add milk instead of water, and/or egg to make it richer, and if you are going to do something like add sweet fruits instead of savory additives for flavor, you can toss in a little sugar and cut back on the salt.

The point was that no matter how you make it, the basics comes down to flour, salt,shortening, and the baking powder, and water. Get the general proportions right and you should be fine, depending on how you cook it. For example, I'd use a little less baking powder if I was going to fry the bannock and making the recipe then instead of ahead of time. I'd use a little more if I was tossing it in the oven to make it rise more. I've seen recipes calling for anywhere between 1-2 cups of flour, and 3-6 tsps of baking powder.

As I've said before, I use these for dumplings too. Just make your bannock in the bowl like usual, and after boiling your chicken and reducing your stock while deboning the chicken and making the bannock, add the chicken back to the pot, drop several spoonfuls of the bannock dough in, and toss a lid on it. When the dumplings float they are done. If you make sure the dough is kinda shaggy the dumplings will cook apart slightly and thicken the broth from the chicken. My kids LOVE this.

[Rick]

I thought about that after I posted. You could substitute animal fat for shortening (I think) but did mountain men have baking powder? Some of our re-enactors might have a true recipe.

[Alpine_Sapper]

I thought about that after I posted. You could substitute animal fat for shortening (I think) but did mountain men have baking powder? Some of our re-enactors might have a true recipe.

I don't know about the guys that settled at jamestown, but if he's talking mountain men, that's early 1800's right?


"While various baking powders were sold in the first half of the 19th century, our modern variants were discovered by Alfred Bird. August Oetker, a German pharmacist, made baking powder very popular when he began selling his mixture to housewives. The same recipe he created in 1891 is still sold as Backin in Germany. Oetker started the mass production of baking powder in 1898 and patented his technique in 1903."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baking_powder (yes, I know it's wikipedia...)

You should check out the first three paragraphs on that page. It gives the science behind it, and the basic makup. You might be able to find a way to make it yourself from baking soda, and acid like cream of tartar, etc.

EDIT: Under the subsitutions in talks about using ash water instead?

[snakeman]

That is great help. I will try the wild yeast. I pretty much fust want to make bread or biscuits out of a sack of flour and stuff I can find or grow. I guess this kind of stuff would be in the ealy 1800's or late 1700's. The afe of the flintlock rifle, coonskin hat, and log cabin.

[Schleprok]

I have had biscuits where bacon grease was used. Very good biscuits.
Taste like heaven. But, you can feel your arteries harden when you eat them...

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

I would like to start becoming more self reliant when it comes to food, and I have heard a lot about the mountain men eating biscuits. Other than flour and water, What all did they put in them?

good recipe crash, wilderness flours include acorn, cattail,wild potato,jerusalem artichoke,rhyzomes of grass, arrow root, and some seed plants like rice.

[Alpine_Sapper]

So did you ever try leavening your biscuits with yeast instead of baking powder? How did they turn out?

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

flat breads work well in the wilderness. flat stone griddle bread is ok with me. i tried to make bread with the mold off of an orange skin, it came out ok,it was dense but it did rise. there are easy ways like that to get the pennincllus (yeast) in the woods. the blue-green mold on oranges is a good one.

[lanahi]

I thought about that after I posted. You could substitute animal fat for shortening (I think) but did mountain men have baking powder? Some of our re-enactors might have a true recipe.

I thought mountain men mostly used sourdough. They kept a starter right in the center of the flour sack, with the flour covering it.

[LudwigVan]

I have had cowboy biscuits before. They were sourdough, and cooked in a dutch oven.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

[wildWoman]

Isn't there a member called Mountain Man? He ought to have the recipe!