LARISSA ARNAULT (Nashville, Tennessee) shares that her mother was a Yankee who married into a quintessential Mississippi family, and goulash would not do for her daddy. So Mamaw Lucy, LUCY HARRIS (Weir, Mississippi), “took my mom under her wing and taught her all the Southern fundamentals—biscuits, lemon ice box pie, fried chicken. My parents and I moved away from Mississippi, but my mother has since taught those recipes to me, and I think of Mamaw Lucy each time I make them,” Larissa says.
2 heaping cups self-rising flour, plus extra for rolling out dough
½ cup buttermilk, divided
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
Oil to grease the skillet
1 Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2 In a medium bowl add the flour. Pour ¼ cup of the buttermilk into the flour. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil directly into the buttermilk. (Do not pour the oil directly on the flour.) Mix until heavy and slightly sticky, adding additional buttermilk and oil as needed.
3 Dust a linen kitchen towel with flour and lay on the counter. Place dough on the floured towel and knead lightly two to three times. Do not over-knead. The texture should be slightly crumbly but still able to mush together.
4 Roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin to about 1-inch thickness. Cut biscuits with a small glass or with a 2-inch cutter.
5 Pour a thin layer of oil into a cast-iron skillet. Dab each biscuit in oil and flip, placing into the skillet. Biscuits will be touching each other in the skillet. Let the biscuits rise in the skillet on top of the stove for 2 minutes.
6 Bake 20 to 25 minutes until the bottoms are golden brown.
MAKES 10 TO 12 BISCUITS.