Cold Water Biscuits (aka Beaten Biscuits)

When the mill was under the ownership of John Sevier Trotter in the mid-1800s, a woman named Malinda Russell operated a boarding house and her own pastry shop a couple of counties over in Greene County, Tennessee an area known as Chuckey Mountain. In 1864 she was robbed and forced to leave the area with her son. They fled to Michigan where she set about raising the funds to one day return to East Tennessee to reclaim her property.

To support herself and save up the money, she wrote and published “A Domestic Cook Book, containing a careful selection of useful receipts for the kitchen” in 1866. Her cookbook went mostly unknown to the cookbook world until it was discovered a few years ago in the collection of a woman in California. It is available online to view here, provided by the Hathi Trust.

In the opening of her cookbook, she wrote her own autobiography, so we feel it best that she tells you herself who she was:

“I was born in Washington county, and raised in Green County in the easter part of Tennessee. My mother (grandmother who raised her) was a member of one of the first families set free by Mr. Noddie of Virginia. I am the daughter of Karon, the youngest of my grandmother. My mother being born after the emancipation of my grandmother, her children are by law free.”

When her cookbook was rediscovered, the cookbook world realized that she was the first African American to write and publish a cookbook in this country. She goes on to tell her readers that she married and had a son, but her husband died four years into their marriage. At the time she wrote and published her cookbook, she was still unmarried and went by her maiden name after her husband’s passing. Prior to the boarding house and pastry shop, she learned to cook, and ran her own laundry service.

Malinda, as we read her own words, sounds like a self-confident woman of fortitude, determination, and creativity. Even though she was a black woman during the time of the Civil War, was able to make it on her own in a time when most people like her were not, though it obviously was not easy. Her story is one that is still relatively unknown, even here in East Tennessee. Researchers have tried to piece together the rest of her story, but the only record of her is in her cookbook. We will feature a couple of receipts from her cookbook as part of our Forgotten Recipes of the Smokies, and we would like to start with her Cold Water Biscuit. Here is the receipt just as it was printed in her book:

Cold Water Biscuit Receipt

To one pint cold water, a piece of lard the size of a teacup, one and a half teaspoons salt; work it lightly in the pastry bowl, turn out on the dough board, and knead and pound until it blisters. Mould into biscuit, and bake in a moderate oven.”   

This is what would also be called a Beaten Biscuit. These were made before leavening agents were available to make them rise. You would knead the dough until it was elastic, then beat it with a rolling pin, paddle, or large flat hammer. As you beat it, the dough would start to get pockets of air in it, which would look like blisters that would begin to pop and snap, and that’s when you knew the dough was ready.

Testing Notes:

In the testing process, we found that the kneading takes about 15 minutes and then the beating of the dough takes an hour or more. The dough became very elastic and slightly tacky, but not sticky.

When beating the dough, you fold it every minute or so. This helps to eventually create air pockets in the dough, which is where the blistering begins, and as you beat it those blisters pop, making the sound that lets you know your dough is about ready.

Then you pat or roll the dough out to about an inch thickness and cut with a biscuit cutter. Prick each biscuit with a fork — traditionally three times — across the top and bake them in a moderate oven of about 325 degrees for about an hour.

They will be slightly crunchy on the outside and dense on the inside and will remain a light color. When you cut them, you will notice that there are very few crumbs because of the tight texture of the biscuit.

Because there are no leavening agents in them, they don’t rise much but will swell up enough to then split and serve country ham pieces or bacon on them. They are best enjoyed fresh from the oven but will last up to 3 weeks when stored in an air-tight container.

Beaten Biscuits were such a staple in a pastry baker’s offerings that a table was designed just for beating the biscuits. It is a very laborious task, so anything to make it more convenient was necessary.

 

We hosted a Livestream on Facebook on June 25, 2021 with James Beard Award-Winning cookbook author and Food Network Kitchen chef, Virginia Willis, who demonstrated the beaten biscuits on her very own antique biscuit break table. We also discussed the progression of biscuits through the ages.

Yield: 2 dozen
Cold Water Biscuits (aka Beaten Biscuits)

Cold Water Biscuits (aka Beaten Biscuits)

Ingredients

  • 1 pint (2 cups) water
  • 1 teacup (3/4 cup) lard
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • Enough plain flour to make a dough, approximately 8-10 cups

Instructions

  1. To the pint of water, add the salt to dissolve. 
  2. In a very large bowl, place flour and make a well in the center. Add the lard to the well and begin to pull flour into the lard, working in circular motions until the flour and lard are mixed and resemble coarse cornmeal. Make a well again in the mixture. There should still be plain flour around the sides of the bowl. Add the salted water to the well of the lard and flour mixture. Begin working in circular motions again to work the flour into the water. When it comes together and no longer pulls flour from the sides, turn the dough out onto a dough board or counter. 
  3. Knead the dough for about 15 minutes. The dough will become very smooth, with no dry flour visible. The dough will be tacky, but not sticky.
  4. Next, begin to beat the dough with a rolling pin or large flat hammer. Beat the dough for about 60 minutes, folding and turning the dough about once a minute, and beat down again. The dough will become very elastic. It is sufficiently worked when the dough blisters and makes a snapping or popping sound when beaten.
  5. Roll or pat out to a 1-inch thickness. Cut with a biscuit cutter, place on a baking sheet, and prick the top of each biscuit with a fork 3 times.
  6. Bake at 325 for 1 hour. Serve warm with country ham pieces or bacon. Store in an air-tight container for up to 3 weeks.
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