How To Make Delicious Appalachian Biscuits (aka Cathead Biscuits)

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Biscuits are a reliable, steady, go-to favorite among all cooks, whether Appalachian or Amish. They are cheap, easy, and comforting. You can drench them in gravy or cut them in half and use them for a sandwich. Or there's just basic butter.

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• 🌄 Appalachian Biscuits
• 🫓 Biscuit Background
• 📋 Step-by-Step Appalachian Biscuits
• 🥐 More Amish Biscuit Recipes
• 🖨️ Full Recipe

🌄 Appalachian Biscuits

There are many types of biscuits. But biscuits seem especially popular in Appalachia. There's even a restaurant chain found mainly in West Virginia called Tudor's Biscuit World. Good stuff.

A restaurant in my hometown that is run by a woman with Appalachian roots serves "cathead biscuits" on restaurant menu. I had never heard the term before,but I apparently the biscuits are as big as a cat's head. Not really an imagery I want on my plate, but, well, it's not like you are eating a cat's head, it's just a size reference.

There are Amish in areas considered, Appalachia, by the way.

🫓 Biscuit Background

Prize-winning blue ribbon baker from Ohio, and a great friend of Amish365, shares a bit about her biscuit basics:

If you’re as fond of biscuits as I am, you probably know many restaurants that
serve tasty ones—Bob Evans, Cracker Barrel and Hardee’s to name a few! What you
may not know is that they’re quick, easy and economical to make from scratch. And are
they mouthwatering! They’re Southern cuisine at its finest!
Coming from an Appalachian background, I was raised on homemade biscuits,
which my mom and grandma turned out by the dozens. Since they baked quick breads
in the old Appalachian style, avoiding any semblance of a recipe, neither Mom nor
Grandma made them exactly alike. Rather, both had their own tricks of the trade, which
they discovered through years of trial and error. And while they were each willing to
reveal their secrets to me, they mostly swore me to secrecy.
At 10, I made my first batch, and by 15, I was churning out a respectable product.
At 29, I managed to win a blue ribbon in the Butler County Fair for them. Like my female predecessors, I don’t normally use an exact recipe. However, since recipes are the best
way for cooks to communicate, I have created one, which describes as accurately as I
can what I do.

📋 Step-by-Step Appalachian Biscuits

These are easy biscuits to make using the basics of flour and butter.

Combine flour, butter, and baking soda. Not Carmon uses an actual pastry blender, unlike the improvised tools I use. See how well that works? If you have a pastry blender, use that!

This is the biscuit batter after buttermilk is added and then you get a thick, moist dough. This is the part where I would instinctively, and incorrectly, add more flour. But Carmon is the biscuit expert and she says the dough should be thick and moist, so stick with that!

This is once you have that sticky, moist dough on a cookie sheet. But you'll flatten and flour them a bit more below.

Using the floured palms of your clean hands press and flatten the dough down into an inch-thick rectangle.

Dip a biscuit cutter or a cup into flour each time and make these round cuts to the rectangle so you can see the biscuit shapes, but don't do anything else yet.

Your batch of biscuits will have scraps of dough in between and on the edges. No need to remove these! The number of biscuits will vary, depending on the size cutter used. (A biscuit cutter 2 ½” in diameter will yield about 15 biscuits.). Some people will enjoy the crispy edges as much as the biscuits themselves! Carmon says her dad used to put them in his coffee. Refrigerate uneaten biscuits and edges; they will keep this way for at least a week.

🥐 More Amish Biscuit Recipes

Easy Buttermilk Biscuits

Triple Butter Biscuits

Biscuit Meatloaf

Beef & Biscuit Casserole

🖨️ Full Recipe

3 cups self-rising flour
1 level tsp. baking soda
¾ cup Crisco, preferably Butter-Flavor, packed into cup leaving few air pockets
1 ⅔ cup buttermilk
Preheat oven to 375 F. combine flour and baking soda. Add Crisco to flour
mixture, and using a pastry blender, break up shortening until it resembles small peas.
Add buttermilk one cup at a time, mixing well. Dough should be thick and moist.
If you have parchment paper on hand, line cookie sheet with it for easier clean-
up. Next, drop dough by about 12 heaping dollops onto well-floured cookie sheet.
Flour top of dough. Using the palms of hands, gently flatten dough out to a jagged
rectangle, about 1” thick. Next, dip a biscuit cutter or water glass rim into flour and cut
out biscuits. You will need to dip the cutter in flour before cutting out each biscuit.
Bake for about 17 minutes on center rack, until biscuits are puffy and beginning
to brown around edges. Turn oven on broil, move biscuits to top rack, and allow them to
get golden brown on top. Watch carefully so as not to burn! Carefully go around

biscuits with a butter knife before removing from cookie sheet with a turner. Some
people will enjoy the crispy edges as much as the biscuits themselves! My dad used to
put them in his coffee. Refrigerate uneaten biscuits and edges; they will keep this way
for at least a week.