Biscuits are a staple on any southern table. Whether for breakfast, lunch, or supper… biscuits make any meal complete. Much thanks to Kathy Lackey for sharing this recipe.
While this recipe calls for a biscuit cutter, I grew up watching my mom form each biscuit by hand and placing them in the pan that way. Just start with ball of dough and shape it out just as you would a hamburger patty. They’ll certainly be a lot less perfect than the biscuit cutter version, but I think it adds character.
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup lard or shortening
- 2/3 cup milk
Directions
- Preheat oven 450 degrees. Make sure the rack is in the center.
- In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in lard until it resembles small peas.
- Stirring with a fork, gently add milk to make a soft dough. With floured hands knead dough gently 4 times in bowl.
- Put dough on lightly floured surface. Roll or pat the dough to about 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick.
- Cut with a floured 2″ cutter. Place the cut-out biscuits about 1″ apart on ungreased baking sheet.
- Bake on a large ungreased baking sheet, until biscuits are golden brown, about 12 minutes.
- Serve biscuits piping hot.
Recipe Card
Good Ol’ Lard Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup lard or shortening
- 2/3 cup milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven 450°F. Make sure the rack is in the center.
- In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in lard until it resembles small peas.
- Stirring with a fork, gently add milk to make a soft dough. With floured hands knead dough gently 4 times in bowl.
- Put dough on lightly floured surface. Roll or pat the dough to about 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick.
- Cut with a floured 2″ cutter. Place the cut-out biscuits about 1″ apart on ungreased baking sheet.
- Bake on a large ungreased baking sheet, until biscuits are golden brown, about 12 minutes.
- Serve biscuits piping hot.
Did you make my Good Ol’ Lard Biscuits?I'd love to see! Share on Instagram, tag @southernbite, and use the hashtag #southernbite!
Good quick biscuit recipe… only thing would add a pinch of sugar and fold twice then cut but overall amazing 🤩
Happy to hear it! Thanks for those tips!
If you use buttermilk you need to adjust/ reduce the baking powder to .50 tsp and replace that portion by adding .50 tsp of baking soda.
The acidity in the buttermilk reduces the effectiveness of the phosphate and will also leave a bitter aftertaste.
Also, make sure to use a double acting baking powder & best that it does not contain aluminum (SALP).
Look at you getting all food-sciency! Thanks for the tips.
Great biscuits. Reminded me of my aunties. I use self rising flour, lard and milk. They tasted fantastic. Just did not rise very much. Will definitely make them again.
Glad you enjoyed them!
Oh my, this recipe is the best I have found just like my grandmother’s biscuits minus the fact she used a wood burning stove and a cast iron dutch oven and hers rose a little higher. Going to use this recipe from now on. They were so flaky and yummy.
I made these and they tasted like dry piles of raw flour. They definitely needed sugar or some spices added to them. Husband asked me not to make them again. 🙁
And only White Lily self-rising flour. Period.
I agree!! 🙂
Oh my gosh, these are amazing! My first time making biscuits with lard, and the best biscuits I’ve ever made. They rose beautifully in the oven, and they were flaky and fluffy and just delicious. Thank you!
I am SO excited to hear that you enjoyed these biscuits!
I’m 76 and bought into the “lard is bad for you” crap years ago because it’s an animal product, but trendy olive oil and coconut oil are worse because they have more saturated fat than lard. We need to face facts: manufactured food is just not good for us–that’s really where all the saturated and trans fats (the “bad fats”) are located for the most part.
My mother, aunt, and grandmother all made biscuits from scratch using both lard and buttermilk and never measured anything and they were always perfect–high and delicious! I don’t remember them using any more than a small ball, maybe a rounded tablespoon, of lard, and later Crisco which became all purpose in the 1960s. but was awful itself–full of saturated fat, trans fats and so on. They also never precisely “mixed” the dry ingredients and worked all of them at once with their hands, then the buttermilk, turning the dough out onto a floured table and shaping each to place in a round cake pan, allowing them to touch.
BTW, buttermilk is what’s left after the butter is made at dairies, so it’s lowfat unless butter is added back in, which is seldom.
You can find self-rising flour in the south which already contains baking powder–just make sure it’s fresh, too. Easy on the butter, though! It has more saturated fat than lard. https://tendergrass.com/lard-vs-coconut-oil/
I used this recipe to make the dough for pigs in the blanket. FABULOUS!!!! thank you so much for this easy quick recipe using lard!!!
So glad it turned out well for you, Melinda!
Reduce to 3/4 of a tsp of salt, add 1 tablespoon of salted butter. 🙂