Tasting History with Max Miller
Published Jun 18, 2024Biscuits topped with salt pork milk gravy
City/Region: United States of America
Time Period: 1881Food prices skyrocketed during the Gold Rush. A single egg could cost $1 (in the mid-1800s!), and a barrel of flour went from $3 to a whopping $400, which equals about $16,000 today. Once you had some flour and a few other staples, including the newly invented canned evaporated milk, you could make these biscuits and gravy.
I love biscuits and gravy, and while the best biscuits and gravy I’ve ever had will always be my grandpa’s, this is pretty good. My biscuits turned out a little flat, but that’s just because I forgot the baking soda.
Cream of Tartar Biscuits
Mrs. Milliken
One quart of flour, three heaping teaspoonfuls of pure cream of tartar, a piece of butter two-thirds the size of an egg, well worked in flour, one heaping teaspoonful of Babbit’s salaratus, dissolved in sweet milk. Make the dough as soft as can be kneaded conveniently; roll a half inch thick, cut in biscuits, and bake in a quick oven.
— Los Angeles Cookery, 1881
Ingredients:
Biscuits
2 cups (240 g) flour
Heaping 1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons (57 g) butter, cut into 4 or 5 pieces
Heaping 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup (175 ml) milk or evaporated milk*, more as neededGravy
1 lb (1/2 kg) fatty meat like sausage, bacon, or salt pork (I used salt pork)
Flour, amount will depend on how much fat you end up with
Evaporated milk, amount will depend
Salt and pepper to taste, optional
*You can use the evaporated milk straight or reconstitute it with an equal amount of water (use a generous 1/3 cup (88 ml) evaporated milk for this recipe)Instructions:
- For the biscuits: Place the flour in a large bowl and whisk in the cream of tartar and salt.
- Add the butter and work it into the flour with your fingers until you have a crumbly mixture with a few larger pieces (about the size of blueberries).
- Whisk the baking soda into the milk to dissolve it, and add it to the flour mixture.
- Work the dough until it comes together. You may need to add a bit more milk if your dough is too dry, but stop adding once it comes together.
- Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for about a minute, then pat or roll it out about 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) thick. Cut out biscuits using a round cookie cutter that’s about 2 1/2 inches (6.5 cm) in diameter. Gather any scraps, roll them out again, and cut more biscuits.
- Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C) and generously grease a baking sheet or a large cast iron skillet with butter or lard.
- Arrange biscuits in the prepared baking vessel, leaving at least 1/2 inch (1 1/2 cm) between biscuits. Bake for 15 minutes or until they’re golden brown.
- For the gravy: If you’re using salt pork, you’ll want to rinse it to get rid of some of the salt because it’s really, really salty. Cover it with water and let it sit for about an hour, then dump the water out and cover it with new water for another hour, then dump the water out. After it has been rinsed, chop it into small pieces.
- Fry the meat in a skillet until it is fully cooked. Remove the meat from the pan, but leave the grease.
- Sprinkle flour into the skillet, about as much as there is grease (you have to eyeball it here), a little more if you want very thick gravy. Stir it together until there are no lumps and cook it for a couple of minutes so that the raw flour taste is cooked out.
- Add in the evaporated milk, stirring constantly, until you have the amount of gravy of a consistency that you like (it will thicken up a bit more as it cooks). Continue to stir occasionally for a few minutes, adding more milk if you want to thin the gravy out. Evaporated milk may cause the gravy to seize, but whisk it for a little while and it will become smooth again.
- Stir the meat back into the gravy and taste it. Add salt and pepper if you like. If you use salt pork, you likely won’t need to add any extra salt.
- Dish up the gravy on top of the biscuits and serve it forth.
October 2, 2024
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