Here’s another American classic from Around the Southern Table by Sarah Belk. Southern Table is a tour de force of historic dishes with a trove of culinary history in the headnotes. In colonial America, white flour was priced at a premium. So the colonists would make “thirded flour” with equal portions of white flour, cornmeal and rye flour. The tradition lingered on in the south, partly from economics and partly from the enjoyment of these flour combinations.
Sarah had caraway-rye bread as a kid in Virginia. Here, she has converted the bread into a biscuit, and a very versatile one at that. You can enjoy these hot out of the oven with butter, no jam is necessary although Sarah does suggest it. Peach would be, well, peachy.
Or let these biscuits cool and then offer them as an appetizer topped with a mix of horseradish, crème fraiche, and smoked trout.
My wife Suzen is a nice Jewish girl from Brooklyn. When I asked her if she would be interested in a Caraway Rye Biscuit, she was enthusiastic. When she took her first bite, she was ecstatic. Her caraway and rye childhood was bagel-based, but I think she is becoming a tad Southern.
Caraway Rye Biscuits
Yield: 24 2-inch biscuits or a smaller number of large drop biscuits
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup medium rye flour, preferably stone-ground
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
7 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter
10 to 12 tablespoons cold milk
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 4250 F.
In a medium-large bowl, combine flours, baking powder, caraway seeds, and salt. Cut in butter using your fingertips, a pastry blender, or two knives until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 10 tablespoons milk and toss with fork until just blended, adding more milk if necessary. Do not overmix.
Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead 4 to 5 times to blend completely. Roll out to a ¼-inch thickness and cut into 2-inch rounds. Place an inch apart on unbuttered baking sheets and bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden on top. Serve piping hot with butter and jam.
Source: Around the Southern Table by Sarah Belk [Simon and Schuster, 1991]
Photo Information [Top]: Canon T2i, EFS 60 mm Macro Lens, F/4.5 for 1/40th second at ISO-640