Scott Peacock Biscuit Image Used Under Creative Commons License From foodpeoplewant.com

My Citizens, there are only two Chefs who – in my mind – exemplify traditional Southern cooking: Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock, who were the closest of friends while Chef Lewis was still alive (she passed in early 2006).

During her declining years, Chef Peacock willingly took care of her until her death and has since taken up her mantle as the true heir of Southern cuisine knowledge! Their signature recipes both included biscuits – and it is Scott’s version I’ll be sharing today!

As noted on southernliving.com:

The term biscuit was originally coined by the British and it referred to their thin cookie and cracker-like biscuit – much different from what it evolved into once it got into the hands of southern cooks.

In the pre-Civil War South, the biscuit was regarded as a delicacy and usually reserved for Sunday lunch or dinner. Now the cathead biscuit was born out of necessity, as they had to get things done quickly. Do it simply, make your biscuit dough, and then pull and drop huge clumps of the buttery dough onto your baking sheet.

Then you have the sweet potato biscuit. Sweet potatoes were abundant in the south. they were often used as a flour substitute because flour was really hard to come by. Then you had the beaten biscuit. Biscuit that was sort of built to last all day in your lunch pail. You could put it in your overall pocket. It is not nice and layered and fluffy like the others, because it had to be durable.

Soft winter wheat flour was really hard to come by for southern biscuit makers. They had to rely on the port cities on Mobile, and New Orleans, to bring in this product.

But when White Lily started making white winter wheat self-rising flour in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1983, it was very much a game changer for biscuit makers. Here in the south you know, we kind of kept our biscuits really close to home.

It wasn’t until the good Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame took our biscuits out of the south in 1952 when he opened his first franchise – in Utah of all places – thus bringing the Southern biscuit nationwide. Now, the key to any great biscuit is to not overwork your dough. Just fold it over very gently.

One mistake a lot of biscuit makers make is they twist the cutter. You don’t want to do that, as you have worked very hard to create these layers. With improvements made on cooking ingredients and techniques, biscuits are one of the easiest things to whip up. They were and always will be a Southern delicacy. And you can find them on any table for any meal of the day. 

As biscuits are one of Scott’s signature dishes, I would like to share his recipe with you, as documented by one of his students.

Scott is a friend of mine and I admire his talent and his desire for a normal life, far from the ‘celebrity chef’ lifestyle that so many strive for in this industry. Far better to focus on making the best dishes, firmly rooted in tradition and teaching the next generation of Southern cooks how to make dishes that are quite literally in their DNA.

I am on the waiting list for Chef Scott’s Alabama cooking school to learn his secrets – this was the latest email I received on this important topic:

Dear TFD, 

Thank you for your interest in the Black Belt Biscuit Experience with Scott Peacock. 

We appreciate your patience; the wonderful level of interest has overwhelmed us and we are slower in our responses than we would like. 

The April issue of Garden & Gun magazine features a profile of Scott that highlights his Biscuit Experience here in Marion, Alabama. The April issue of Travel + Leisure Magazine also features the Biscuit Experience.  In response to this wonderful publicity, demand for booking is at a high.

Space is limited and we suggest that you secure space and priority scheduling by purchasing your biscuit experience as soon as possible. We can then work with you to find a date that is to your liking. I have attached a copy of the Garden & Gun article for your enjoyment. 

Please let us know if you have any questions, we are happy to work with you in any way we can. 

Scott hopes to host you in Marion, Alabama soon!

Warmly,

Sydney James 

Black Belt Provisions 

chefscottpeacock.com

Follow the directions in this recipe *exactly* and know that you will be making the finest biscuits you’ll ever taste! 🙂 If you can, sign up for Scott’s cooking school and learn all the techniques you need to be the ultimate Southern Chef!

Battle on – The Generalissimo

Russian Rye Bread Image Used Under Creative Commons License From pikabu.ru

Citizens! It will probably not surprise any of you that your revolutionary and always respected Leader – the almighty TFD! – has deep Eastern European roots, including Mother Russia. As such, there are many recipes of this genre here on the blog – but few touch the heartstrings of the Highest more than this one. Genetics are strong indeed when it comes to remaking and enjoying the different foods of your ancestors!

No staple is so important to a Russian table as bread. Especially black rye bread. In Russia bread has its own laws, regulations and even price controls.

The famous Russian tradition of welcoming guests is called “Bread and Salt” (“Khleb-Sol”) – if this doesn’t emphasize the importance of this bread to Russians, I don’t know what will! From times immemorial the Slavs believed that people who shared bread became friends forever. Thus the old tradition of welcoming dear friends, newlyweds, and new settlers by serving bread and salt. Bread means a full table, whereas salt is an ancient and nearly forgotten symbol of protection and guarding the home from fire.

Bread is not only the basis of Russian table, but also a symbol of people’s wellbeing. This is why there are a number of customs related to bread. It should be remembered, that the national Russian bread is black and sour rye bread with leavening. Being much cheaper and more nutritious than white wheat bread, it has played a dominant role in life of the people.

In times of trouble, Russian black bread has literally meant the difference between starvation and life itself. During the Nazi siege of Leningrad, residents ate black bread with hardly little else for almost three and a half years – and survived. In times of plenty and celebration, Russian black bread is a symbol of wealth and health.

Black bread is called black, as rye flour gives it a characteristic dark color. Black and brown bread (made from a mixture of flour), which contain rye flour in its composition, is absorbed by the body several times slower than white – making it a good choice for diabetics.

In addition to fewer calories, it also brings other benefits. It contains: fiber, trace elements, macronutrients, amino acids and mineral salts. Also the proteins of rye bread are richer than lysine. Of course, rye bread contains less calories than wheat, but it also helps to eliminate carcinogens and harmful metabolic products from the body.

My version of the classic incorporates several ground spices (all traditional to this cuisine) and uses some truly authentic Russian ingredients. Like sour pickle juice (if you have access to any, you could also use the fermented Russian beverage Kvass for a similar flavor profile) and genuine Russian sourdough starter. Other specialty ingredients such as rye flour, first clear flour, rye bread improver and black cocoa can be purchased from the provided links.

First Clear flour is a unique type of flour specific for use in making rye bread. As noted on King Arthur Flour’s website:

First clear flour is what remains after milling patent flour, giving it a darker color and higher mineral content. Traditionally, Jewish bakeries used first clear flour to bake their rye breads – the protein in first clear balances the lack of gluten in rye flour to give rye breads loftier rise and better chew.

Combine first clear flour with flours that typically produce denser loaves (like whole wheat, rye, or spelt). It’ll improve the rise and final texture of your baked goods.

Since I am Russian Jewish by descent, I MUST use the ancestral recipe here! The directions for making the sourdough rye starter is from the unmatched Stanley Ginsberg – it is truly spectacular, though I made one tiny change by specifying the Russian yeast starter.

Citizens, unleash your inner Russian and try this rye bread straight from the source – you will thank me as it will be one of the best recipes for rye you’ll ever try! 🙂 Remember that if you’re making this for the first time, you’ll need to make the sourdough starter a week in advance. After that, you can make it anytime you want as long as you keep feeding the starter. Try it smeared with your best butter, add some caviar and enjoy a traditional Russian zakuski (appetizer) – or try it with pork fat (or smoked pork), with some onion slices or just on your favorite sandwich!

Battle on – The Generalissimo

Uno Pizza Image Used Under Creative Commons License From yelp.com

My Citizens, it is a rare and supremely gratifying moment when I – the never silent TFD Himself! – can share a truly hidden and top-secret corporate recipe with you! My friend Mike was going through his attic a few weeks ago and found a handwritten page written back in June of 1971 that detailed the actual Pizzeria Uno pizza recipe, as given to a relative of his direct from the founder!

Apparently, one day a pizza that was cooked for him at the original restaurant was sub-par, so he went to the founder/chef Ike Sewell and complained. Ike was a dear friend of his and did something he never, EVER did any other time. He walked his friend through the actual recipe for Chicago Deep Dish Pizza that he himself invented, step-by-step!

The pizza recipe was filed away for nearly 50 years – until it was shared with me and now, I share it with you all! Being a member of TFD Nation definitely has its advantages! 😀

Now – for the record – TFD is embarrassed to note that he prefers NYC-style pizza, but that’s only because I grew up there and it’s the version that is permanently imprinted on my palate as “pizza”. The “casserole-in-a-crust” that is Chicago deep-dish pizza is totally delicious, so please do not blame me for my prejudice – and I’ll be the first to admit the Chicago hot dog is a vastly superior product to the NYC version!

Now, with all that out of the way: as noted in From the Chicago Tribune:

James Janega – Blue Sky Reporter

Among America’s eateries, Chicago cuisine is notable for its take on pizza: Thick as a stone slab, saucy and larger than life.

The families behind Chicago’s most famous pizza houses each lay claim to inventing the recipe, but one thing about the origins of Deep Dish Pizza is known pretty certainly:

It came to be in 1943 inside the kitchen of a converted 19th Century mansion built with the Mears family’s lumber money at 29 E. Ohio St. — today the site of Pizzeria Uno.

There were no written records. No recipes. No vintage photos.

But Chicago had produced a unique and enduring variation on traditional Italian and American pizzas. It had a coarse, crunchy crust and sauce on top of cheese. It was heavy on Italian sausage.

Nationally, pizza is a $30 billion industry, and is especially popular among Chicagoans. Pizzeria Uno and its sibling a block away, Pizzeria Due, now are part of a national chain, Uno, which boasts on its website that “Ike Sewell developed deep dish pizza and opened a new type of restaurant at the corner of Ohio & Wabash.”

Nathan Mears’ old house would become Chicago legend — a pizzeria founded by Richard Novaretti, known as Ric Riccardo, the owner of Riccardo’s Restaurant, and his friend, Sewell, a Chicago liquor distributor. In their restaurant worked Rudy Malnati Sr., father of Lou Malnati and grandfather of the current owners of the Lou Malnati’s restaurant chain.

\Riccardo and Sewell’s restaurant opened in 1943 as The Pizzeria, became Pizzeria Riccardo soon afterward and settled in as Pizzeria Uno in 1955, when the partners opened Pizzeria Due in Mears’s daughter’s mansion across the street at Wabash and Ontario.

The personalities they gathered in that Ohio Street kitchen make it difficult, despite Uno’s website proclamation, to know exactly who came up with the recipes. Each person, and their families, stakes a claim to the One True Recipe. They became the founders of Malnati’s and Pizano’s, Gino’s East, and Uno itself.

But Chicago benefitted from the rivalry — and so do visitors, or anyone who hungers for Chicago’s heavy-weight pies and can find them on the road.

Now, without further ado – enjoy this ultimate Chicago treat, Citizens! 😀