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  • From: EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] wooden bowls for biscuits
  • Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:40:47 -0500

I know all of you biscuit makers are laughing. 'Tis okay. ....:)

Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:

I never knew that bowl makers were so unique.
Don or James or anyone else on the list...what can you tell me
about bowl adzes? (I can't say that<g>) We have a big lathe, but I
want a rectangular or oval bowl, I think.

Oval, but not rectantular. And a lathe is useless for anything but
salad bowls.

I knew that, but what I wasn't sure about was whether round bowls were
used more for biscuits than oval bowls. I use my bread machine for 98%
of all kneading work(I actually can't think of a recipe that I hand
knead anymore), but since biscuits generally aren't kneaded, I thought
maybe a more round bowl would be in order. I read that the bowls were
rectangular, trenches, because you would work/knead the dough to the
right then to the left.

The type of vessel you are describing is properly more of a
'trencher' than a bowl.

Right, but is that more for loaf breads or biscuits? I know not these
things, just making assumptions.



One consideration is that very hard wood is difficult to turn into a
bowl. It tends to check and crack. Best woods for biscuit trenchers
is poplar and gum, the latter being arguably the best.

The adze is OK for this work, but far better is a scorp. There are
scorps available just for bowl making.

I'll look at that. I've never heard of a scorp. Thanks for the lead.


This guy makes shallow bowls. I read that they should be 4"
deep. Is
that to insulate yeast breads? Why would I want either a shallow
or a deep bowl?

For biscuits, as already commented upon, you don't want to do a lot
of mixing and no kneading, so a very shallow vessel is best.

Ok, so by that we forget trenchers.

The master bisucit makers of bygone days, a glimpse of which I was
afforded from their nearly centigenarian hands was this: making
biscuits for a large family every day, they had a huge covered tub
that held the bisucit flour, at east 25 lbs if not more. Each
morning they would send a child to count heads to see who had shown
up at the house late to spend the night, and then they would make a
little crater in the middle of the tub and put in the lard and buttermilk and levening and mix that in lightly and lift the whole
dough out of the tub without leaving any bits behind. This went on
the floured board and was cut into biscuits.

Is it better to make sure the shortening/lard is very fine and crumbly
or would that be working it in too much? How 'fine' should it be? I
have a 'cut in' tool (I don't know the official name for it)-should I
use that to get a finer, more even 'crumb' or stay with a fork and leave
the 'crumbs' of uneven size? If the crumb is too small is that what
makes the biscuits flatter?


Or else the dough was mixed a bit wetter and then spooned onto the
biscuit pan to make enormous "cat's head" biscuits.

My stepmother made cat heads. I'm gonna try that, too. Thanks.

--
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hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
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