Momma Daisy’s Buttermilk Biscuits

Pat: Momma Daisy served these biscuits every Sunday with homemade preserves, scrambled eggs, and bacon. There would also be sorghum molasses, for drizzling over the warm buttered biscuits, whenever she could get some from her uncles in the country. Momma Daisy made everything from scratch back in those days, because it was the most economical way, there weren’t a lot of prepared mixes, and that’s simply how things were done. These biscuits were always mixed by hand, and my mother, Lorine, remembers seeing Momma Daisy work and work and work that dough with her very capable fingers. Some biscuit recipes scare you away from overmixing the dough, but in this recipe that’s how the flaky layers are created. Momma Daisy always used lard for these biscuits, but these days my momma uses a combination of butter and vegetable shortening—feel free to use either. The latter is better for you, but the former creates the fluffiest biscuits around.