OK with the biscuit discussion I suppose I should give out my recipe, LOL, as they say in my cooking group; "don't ask him for a recipe, you'll regret it and don't try to open it on you phone, it will lock up. LOL
Quick Bread (Soft Dough)
This is basic information on making breads with a chemical leavening, most often this is baking powder, but there are other methods, (See section on Leavening.) by working off of it one can make dozens of different breads with just some minor variations. With this you can make scones for the Brits, Pan de Campo for the Texans, bannock for the folks up north, damper for the Aussies or just biscuits for most of us, the terms vary between regions as to how you shape it and how you cook it. Well to be truthful they for the most part are about the same thing just shaped a little different. It makes a nice crust for a pot pie or you can put it on top of stew or chicken or similar dish simmering and you can make steamed dumplings. A little extra sugar and its can be cobbler crust or dessert bread, add some cinnamon and/or raisins if desired or even apples or any other type of fruit.
Take it and make a patty out of it, punch a hole in it and fry it for fry bread, with a little bit of changing by adding more sugar and perhaps some cinnamon and/or nutmeg you can make doughnuts out of it, crullers, bear sign or similar items, they are all basically the same fried dough
As discussed in the section on leavening, a quick bread uses a chemical leavening so you don’t have to wait 2 or more hours for the yeast to produce the CO2. The basic recipe uses baking powder; single or double acting is fine either way. (See section on leavening.) For those who want to keep the amount of supplies as simple as possible, I recommend the self-rising flour, all you need to do is measure it out the flour and leave the baking powder and salt out of the recipe. We know it was sold just before the Civil War so it is period correct. If one is also going to make yeast breads it is most likely better to carry regular flour and baking powder, or at least I find it is, but if one is not making yeast breads, it will sure simplify things, that is one of my secrets, simpler is better, in this case you don’t have to measure or guess the right amount of baking powder.
Although this recipe contains milk and shortening (lard or butter) with the self-rising flour one could just mix with water, make dough and you could make biscuits, they wouldn’t be the best ones you ever had, but they would raise and be eatable. The dough could even be wrapped on a stick and carefully baked over a fire.
Although these above suggestions, are period correct methods of making quick bread, to be honest most of us would rather have a little better food when out in camp. By adding some shortening and/ or milk to our baking powder/flour mix we will get a much better product.
Biscuits, the breadstuff you make by taking this dough and making individual round hunks were one of the most common breads made in camp, both today in the time period and still today and if you make some extra bacon and biscuits for breakfast, then a noon meal can be made out of cold biscuit and bacon, might not be seen a lot in a modern historical camp but would have been very common in the 19th century.
This recipe will work out fine for making biscuits in a 10 or 12 inch shallow dutch oven or any other variant that makes a loaf instead, such as damper. By looking at this recipe one will note it calls for ¾ of a cup of milk, if you double the recipe, then it will use a whole 12 ounce can of canned milk. This will work as a loaf in a 12 or 14 inch deep oven or as our biscuits in a 14 inch shallow oven. This has the advantage of using the whole can of milk and not having to deal with leftovers of it and also one does not have the problems dealing with fresh milk no matter if you take the modern method of going to the store or if you want to be totally period correct and decide to keep a cow. (I would have no problem with someone who wanted to do this for me, provided they kept it at a reasonable distance and took care of feeding it, watering it and milking it.)
Basic quick bread
2 cups flour 2 cups
3 tsp baking powder or of
1 tsp salt self rising flour.
………………………………………………………………………………………….
1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of sugar (optional)
3 tablespoons of lard or 4 tablespoons of butter
¾ cup of milk
Mix the dry ingredients and cut in the butter/lard, add the milk and knead just enough to mix well adding a bit more milk or flour to get slightly sticky soft dough. (If using canned milk and the can is empty, just add a bit more water.) Kneading it beyond what is needed with toughen the final product.
We are now ready to bake this, have the dutch oven one plans on using ready and very lightly greased or at least make sure it’s well seasoned. (A large cast iron frying pan will work in the home kitchen. When using the oven at home, preheat to 425-450.) When baking with a dutch oven outside the question is if to preheat or not before baking. I seldom do, for one it’s an extra step and I like to keep it simple because I’m often running several ovens at once, also with coals and the iron it comes up to temperature in about the same time as putting a non pre-heated cooking vessel in a pre-heated oven. But like most things where there is more than one way to do it, none of the methods are wrong provided the results are as desired. With these quick breads you just want to bake in a hot oven which is around the same temperature as recommended for the home oven.
Cut Biscuits: Roll the dough or flatten with your hands to between ½ inch and 1 inch thick, cut the desired size with either a biscuit cutter or an empty can. Place on the bottom of the oven and bake 10-15 minutes or till golden brown.
Cathead Biscuits: A common old west term for a biscuit formed with the hand instead of rolled and cut, often bigger and thicker than a cut one, hence the term, depending on the size, these will need to bake longer than the smaller cut biscuits.
Drop Biscuits: Use the above recipe but increase the milk to 1 cup and using a tablespoon, fill it to heaping with the softer dough and drop them in the bottom of the oven and bake as above, these also tend to be thicker and need a little extra baking time over a thinner cut biscuit.
For a little fancier menu sometimes herbs, cheese or citrus rind is added to the biscuits, this also shows up in period recipe books, it can be a nice change of menu.
Pan de Campo: Spanish for camp bread, popular in the South West United States and the state bread of Texas. Roll out or flatten by hand as for the cut biscuit and place in the dutch oven, bake 15-20 minutes and cut.
Bannock: Bannock is a name used for different types of breads, its origins is unleavened flat bread made of oats or barley flour and originates in the British Isles. In some parts of the United States and Canada it is a term used for fry bread, it is often made in just a lightly greased skillet and it is really more baked than true frying, it is turned over during the process when it is done on the bottom.
I have also seen the basic recipe for quick bread made into a large round loaf and baked in a deep oven and called bannock. This makes easy camp bread also. This is also similar to what in Australia is called damper, but damper is also sometimes baked in the hot ashes of a fire with out an oven.
Scones: Scones can be a wedge cut out of bannock, but often the term is for a similar shaped bread cut into wedges before baking, or one baked in a pan that makes wedges, that is shortened with butter and is sweeter, often with raisins, current’s dates or citrus peel. Sometimes scones are also baked round like an American biscuit. Like any item, different recipes abound, but by taking this basic recipe, then using butter instead of lard, adding a beaten egg and extra sugar to taste one can make a decent scone similar to a lot of the British recipes, the other items can be added such as mentioned above. Roll a ½ inch thick or so, bake in a moderate oven for 15-20 minutes and cut into wedges when done or cut into round scones or wedges before baking. These are perfect for a camp tea time if the situation does happen to come up.
News & Blogs
Home
Posts
Recent Posts
Help
Business Directory
Calendar
Advertising Rates
Contact Us
Login
Register
