Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
In a New York Times magazine story, writer Sam Sifton explores the creation of the biscuit, and he leads his story with an anecdote about Hannah Raskin, the former food writer at the Mountain Xpress.
Back in 1998, Raskin was working for The Commercial Dispatch in Mississippi and went to cover a screening of Beloved, a film commissioned by Oprah and based on the popular Toni Morrison book. There’s a brief scene in the movie where Oprah’s in a kitchen making biscuits.
From the NYT:
Biscuits are what take us into the kitchen today to cook: fat, flaky mounds of quick bread, golden brown, with a significant crumb. Composed of flour, baking powder, fat and a liquid, then baked in a hot oven, they are an excellent sop for sorghum syrup, molasses or honey. They are marvelous layered with country ham or smothered in white sausage gravy, with eggs, with grits. Biscuits are easy to make.
When the film ended, Raskin said in a recent e-mail, Winfrey took to the front of the theater to take questions about race, gender, oppression and literature.
It did not work out that way. Raskin: “The first audience member to speak said something like: ‘Oprah, y’all made your biscuits wrong. Don’t you remember how we make our biscuits round here?’ I believe the biscuit-making scene lasted about 20 seconds, but the roar of the crowd suggested the speaker wasn’t alone in her outrage.”
Biscuits are like that. You need to make them right or not make them at all, and most people will tell you most of the time that however you are making biscuits, you are making them wrong. This is true especially if you are not from the South or if you are from England, where biscuits are hard and dry and sit on the dividing line between cookie and cracker.
Raskin is now restaurant critic for The Seattle Weekly.
