A Love Letter to the Southern Biscuit with Over 70 Sweet and Savory Recipes
May 15, 2023
Baker, food writer, recipe developer, and owner of the Bomb Biscuit Company, Erika Council brings readers a book full of biscuits of every kind, from savory to sweet. Those who like to keep it simple but delicious will enjoy the Bomb Buttermilk Biscuit, more adventurous readers may like the 7UP or cola biscuits, and those who typically head straight for the sweets can enjoy chocolate chip biscuits. Council also includes recipes for jams, spreads, and butters to complement her biscuits and offers a guide to necessary tools, pantry ingredients, and biscuit-making techniques. Family stories about the author's grandmother, Mildred Edna Cotton Council (author of Mama Dip's Kitchen, 1999), who started the Council family business by opening her own restaurant in 1972, are sure to entertain readers too.
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Starred review from August 21, 2023
In this irresistible debut, Council, owner of the Bomb Biscuit Co., in Atlanta, spreads “the gospel of biscuits.” It’s framed as “a love letter to the African American women and men who have both inspired and taught me along the way,” and manages to be just that without ever becoming sappy. Indeed, Council’s frank sidebars about political issues like the erasure of Black women chefs and historical cookbooks like A Date with a Dish by Freda DeKnight, the first food editor of Ebony Magazine, are highlights. Council shares basic biscuit recipes alongside instructions for DIY dry biscuit mix (which, Council claims, also makes excellent pancakes), and innovative techniques, including biscuits made with duck fat and one that calls for 7UP for extra lift. There are also butter swim biscuits, made by dropping dough into a pan of melted butter; pull-apart biscuits; and sweet potato biscuits passed down from Council’s grandmother, the founder of the North Carolina restaurant Mama Dip’s Kitchen. Sweet variations include doughnutlike fried biscuit dough and lemony dumplings simmered in blueberry sauce, while savory treats include a fried chicken sandwich and pretzel biscuits filled with bratwurst and mustard. There’s even a quiche in a biscuit crust. This exhaustive and uplifting outing will have home cooks eager to get baking.
June 10, 2024
This cookbook is entirely biscuits--all styles, all flavors, all sorts of techniques--and cooks should rejoice. With its beautiful illustrations and comfortable and comforting dialogue, even the most inexperienced bakers can feel confident that what comes out of the oven will win raves. Why so many kinds of biscuits? The author explains how each is different and what it's best used for. Buttermilk biscuits, ones made with whole milk, evaporated milk, butter, shortening, or duck fat all come together as if by magic. The last chapters offer recipes for spreads and fillings, with a fine emphasis on the joys of apple butter. Fried chicken and fried green tomatoes are not ignored and are presented as the fillings for amazing sandwiches. Part of the beauty of this book is Council's running commentary on soul-food culture and how it has come to impact life everywhere. Historic photos of the author's family and their stories enhance the book the same way the ingredients flavor the biscuits. VERDICT Council, creator/ blogger at Southern Souffl� and owner/chef of Bomb Biscuits in Atlanta, makes her debut with a fun-to-read cookbook full of delicious recipes.--Danise Hoover
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