I am not from the south. But i do come from an actual food tradition of home made items. Stuff made from ingredients that are bought in packages measured in pounds.
And yet the canned biscuit is part of my past.
I can make a mean biscuit. I can make half a dozen varieties of biscuits. I know the difference between a scone and a biscuit. I buy flour in 50lb bags. I know the difference between baking soda and baking powder.
But for some reason, a discussion with friends left me nostalgic for biscuits that come in an exploding can.
It's not that my parents foisted those upon me - quite the contrary, when i was young i sometimes insisted on their novelty, and was sometimes supplied with cheap, no-name, store-brand canned biscuits. I recall playing catch with my brothers - the recipient of an exploded can being responsible for their baking.
I recall them having a buttery flavor of sorts. Awkwardly uniform soft crumb, despite the weird circle in the middle.
They were not great, but they were what they were.
And so with these memories dancing in my mind like sugar plums, i bought a can of store-brand biscuits at winco.
And they were completely awful.
I was surprised to find that they were leavened with ammonia. Mad props for the anachronism and bald-faced food science. Ammonia is a totally legit leavening agent that cooks out 100%, unlike most others. It was just surprising to smell the ammonia while they baked.
The texture was just as i recalled.
But the flavor. Oh god the flavor. SWEET, like little cakes.
WHY?
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