Characteristics and Preparation
The dough was originally made from flour, salt, sugar, lard, and cold water, and beaten with a hard object or against a hard surface. It is pricked with a fork prior to baking and cut smaller than a regular biscuit.
How long the biscuits are beaten varies from one recipe to the next, from "at least 15 minutes" to "30 to 45 minutes." The beating these biscuits undergo is severe: they are banged with a "rolling pin, hammer, or side of an axe"; or they are "pounded with a blunt instrument... a tire iron will do...Granny used to beat 'em with a musket"; one book "instructs the cook to 'use boys to do it'"--that is, beat the biscuits vigorously "at least 200 times." Besides ensuring the proper texture for the biscuit, "this beating also serves to vent the cook's weekly accumulation of pent-up frustrations."
Read more about this topic: Beaten Biscuit
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