Thanksgiving Biscuits: The Secret to the South's Recipe - The Atlantic

Thanksgiving Biscuits: The Secret to the South's Recipe - The Atlantic

"The one ingredient I took for granted had indeed been the key all along, says Robert Dixon Phillips, a retired professor of food science at the University of Georgia. To make a good biscuit, 'you want a flour made from a soft wheat,' he says. 'It has less gluten protein and the gluten is weaker, which allows the chemical leavening--the baking powder--to generate carbon dioxide and make it rise up in the oven.' It turns out that in most of the U.S., commonly available flours are made from hard wheats, which serve a different purpose. 'Hard wheats are higher in gluten protein, and when they're turned into a dough, the dough is very strong and elastic and can trap carbon dioxide,' says Phillips. If you want to make bread, you want a hard wheat. Northern biscuits suck because they are made with bread flour."