Self-Rising Biscuits

This recipe is very old. As my mother read the ingredients to me, she reminded me that the old wives’ kitchen tip about biscuits was, “Cook ’em real hot and real fast.”

2 cups self-rising flour

¼ cup butter-flavored shortening

¾ cup milk

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Sift the flour into a bowl and cut in the shortening with a pastry cutter until the mixture is the consistency of fine cornmeal. Add the milk very gradually, working the mixture into a soft dough. Turn out on a floured surface and knead for “about half a minute.” (This was actually written in the old recipe that was in my grandmother’s kitchen.) Roll the dough out to a ½-inch thickness and cut with a biscuit cutter. Place the biscuits on a greased biscuit pan and bake for about 10 minutes.

Makes 10 to 12 biscuits