Recipes

Karl Worley’s Family Reserve Biscuits

The Biscuit Love chef shares his go-to recipe

Photo: Margaret Houston

A batch of biscuits gets a healthy dose of melted butter.

Karl Worley, who with his wife, Sarah, runs Nashville’s Biscuit Love, a veritable shrine to the Southern staple, knows biscuits. Most people, he says, don’t think about how few ingredients there are in biscuits. “Flour is eighty-five percent of the taste. Whenever possible I tell folks to buy a local flour.” Worley also lobbies for the purest buttermilk you can find (“No fillers like tapioca! Just milk and culture”) and real honest-to-goodness lard.

Margaret Houston

But don’t worry. “You’re not going to do anything wrong,” Worley says. “You’re making biscuits, and that brings people around the table. That’s what we’re missing these days.”


Ingredients

  • For the biscuits

    • 2 cups all-purpose flour

    • 3 tbsp. sugar

    • 2 tsp. baking powder (Omit if using Self Rising Flour)

    • 1 tsp. Kosher salt

    • 2 tbsp. butter, very cold

    • 2 tbsp. lard, very cold

    • 1 cup full-fat buttermilk

    • ⅔ cup heavy cream

  • For Shaping

    • 1½ cups all-purpose flour

    • 4 tbsp. butter, melted


Preparation

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

  2. Butter the bottom and sides of an 8-inch cast iron skillet.

  3. Mix together dry ingredients.

  4. Grate the cold butter and lard into the dry ingredients and toss to distribute.

  5. Pour buttermilk and cream into dry ingredients and mix until just barely combined. It should resemble cottage cheese.

  6. Use 4-ounce scoop or spoon to place one dollop of dough into a bowl with the remaining flour.

  7. Sprinkle flour on top. Pick up dough ball and gently shake off excess flour.

  8. Place into the skillet very close together.

  9. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown and set.

  10. Pour melted butter over biscuits as soon as they are out of the oven.

Recipe from Karl Worley of Biscuit Love in Nashville, Tennessee


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