A Childhood Full of Biscuits
by Leigh Walkup
Certain recipes have a way of creeping into our minds and imprinting us with a nostalgia that lasts forever. I’m never sure quite what it is but when a food touches your soul, you know it.
All families have certain dishes that will always be served, always be talked about, and always be loved. It may not make any sense to anyone else, but to YOUR family, those recipes mean so much. They bring you a sense of love, a sense of tradition, and belonging with every bite. They bring happiness, don’t they?
For our family, it is Mama’s cathead biscuits. When Mom talks about her childhood, those cathead biscuits always make an appearance. She said her mom made them every single day! Can you imagine? I know people that have never made a biscuit in their life, and my grandmother made them every single day.
Today, Mom makes the cathead biscuits in the family. She has continued the tradition, and I’m sure at some point Anne and I will take over that role, too. Mom still uses her mother’s crock to make them. It’s incredible how a recipe can travel through a family line bringing all the emotion with it. I introduced these biscuits to my husband, and he is the first at the table when Mom announces she is making biscuits. Tradition…it really is something. No, we don’t have a beehive for fresh honey, and we aren’t milking cows every day for the buttermilk, but we’re still making those biscuits! Yes, times have changed but what we hold on to will remain.
Cathead biscuits have touched SO many families. It’s astonishing to hear all the stories from our readers that have memories wrapped up in this recipe.
“What dear memories this brings back of my own Mama’s cat head biscuits. She had a crock bowl, too. She was so adept she could make a pan of biscuits without measurin* anything. She had a Hoosier cabinet where the flour was sifted into the dough bowl. She would hollow out a spot where she worked in the lard and buttermilk, and always pinched off each biscuit. If there was extra flour left in the bowl, it didn’t matter. The bowl would be placed back in the cabinet to await the next batch.” Julie Poteat”
“Good recipe, even I can cook them. Remember 50-53 years ago as a grandson at grannies house waking up to her cathead biscuits. Lived in a shotgun house, put leftover biscuits on dinner table. Us kids would run in the house thru the front door, grab a biscuit, fill with good homemade jam and run out the back door. Super great memories. Thanks again.”-Tony”
If you know us, you know we love biscuits. We enjoy biscuits about every week and have made so many different kinds of biscuits.. which is why we created this digital cookbook. Now you can have these delicious biscuit recipes right at your fingertips!
- Recipes anyone can make with simple ingredients.
- Baking tips, freezing tips, etc.
- Our favorite gravy recipes included!
- Appetizer biscuits, breakfast biscuits and biscuits that go with soup, etc.
Other biscuit recipes you may love are our Sour Cream Biscuits, Honey Buttermilk Biscuits, and these delicious Sausage Cheese Biscuits.
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