| Beaten biscuit | |
| Alternate Name: | Sea biscuits |
| Country: | United States |
| Region: | Southern United States |
| Type: | Biscuit |
| Main Ingredient: | Flour, salt, sugar, lard, cold water |
Beaten biscuits are a Southern food from the United States, dating from the 19th century. They differ from regular American soft-dough biscuits in that they are more like hardtack. In New England they are called "sea biscuits", as they were staples aboard whaling ships.[1] Beaten biscuits are also historically associated with Maryland cuisine.[2]
The dough was originally made from flour, salt, sugar, lard, and cold water. Modern recipes may add baking powder. [3] They are beaten with a hard object or against a hard surface. It is pricked with a fork prior to baking and cut smaller than a regular biscuit.[4] The prepared dough is baked at 325F for 20 minutes until tops are golden brown, but some bakers prefer a crisp, white biscuit that is baked with no browning.[5]
How long the biscuits are beaten varies from one recipe to the next, from "at least 15 minutes"[6] to "30 to 45 minutes."[4] The beating these biscuits undergo is severe: they are banged with a "rolling pin, hammer, or side of an axe";[6] or they are "pounded with a blunt instrument...[even] a tire iron will do...Granny used to beat 'em with a musket";[7] one book "instructs the cook to 'use boys to do it'"—that is, beat the biscuits vigorously "at least 200 times."[8] Besides ensuring the proper texture for the biscuit, "this beating also serves to vent the cook's weekly accumulation of pent-up frustrations."[7]
These biscuits were traditionally used in "ham biscuits", a traditional Southern canapé, where they are sliced horizontally and spread with butter, jelly, mustard and filled with pieces of country ham, or used to sop up gravy or syrup.[7] [8] They are sometimes considered "Sunday biscuits" and can be stored for several months in an airtight container.[7] Beaten biscuits were once so popular that special machines, called biscuits brakes, were manufactured to knead the dough in home kitchens.[7] A biscuit brake typically consists of a pair of steel rollers geared together and operated by a crank, mounted on a small table with a marble top and cast iron legs.
Due to the amount of work required to make them, beaten biscuits are no longer popular.[9] Ham biscuits are still widely found in the United States but are made with standard biscuits or dinner rolls.[10]