What are some of your unpopular opinions about food?

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Replies

  • FireOpalCO
    FireOpalCO Posts: 641 Member
    pinuplove wrote: »
    FireOpalCO wrote: »
    I like the sugar crust on the coffee shop muffins as a confection but can do without the rest of it. As far as muffins that are reasonable to eat go, I like the simple Martha White apple cinnamon muffins; the envelope you add a half cup of milk to. Most people try too hard with muffins for my taste (other than the melted sugar crust :smiley: ).

    See to me, that's not a muffin. That's... cake or something. A muffin (back when I still could have gluten) was a simple thing I made with butter and buttermilk and flour and a very small amount of sugar and was tasty in its simplicity. It was a vehicle for good jam or jelly. Strawberry or blackberry preferably.

    That sounds like a biscuit.

    Where I'm from, biscuits are never sweetened. Neither is cornbread.

    Did I just stumble on another unpopular opinion?

    She said a small amount of sugar. Plenty of cornbread and biscuit recipes call for a 1-2 teaspoons of sugar. I don't consider it "sweetened" until you're talking about tablespoons or more. I've made sweet cornbread (with honey) and more traditional. It depends on what's being served (and who is eating).

    I don't have cast iron, so usually I do mine in cupcake tins. No cutting required! I wish I had the cast iron my mom had where they came out as little ears of corn.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,204 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    pinuplove wrote: »
    Also, cornbread should always be baked in cast iron and cut into wedges, as pictured. This ensures everyone gets an equal portion of the crispy sides. Squares (or whatever square shape you can get from a round pan) is not acceptable and may result in table fights :tongue:

    I have never had skillet cornbread, only baking dish cornbread, and I concur. Family hierarchy comes into play in a square loaf. Feelings are hurt.

    And I will change my story - yes, the biscuits you pictured are also traditionally biscuits as I would think of them. Perhaps the dividing line is not much flavor/crispy bottom/ meant to be a vehicle for other flavors - biscuit.
    Flavored/not crispy/probably best with a cup of coffee or tea - muffin.

    This will give me something to think about rather than working :drinker:

    To my taste, the very best biscuits, fresh from the oven, are a true gustatory delight . . . enhanced by a good butter, other toppings acceptable but utterly optional. It has a subtly rich delicate flavor on its own, but the true glory of the thing is the texture: Light, almost melting on the tongue, never gooey or dry. Yes, somewhat flaky, but flakes of light, rich cloud-goodness, not flaky like a pastry.

    I have a great recipe (Shirley Corriher's from Cookwise, but I rarely make them unless there's somewhere I can take them to be eaten immediately hot from the oven. Partly it's that they're best that way, partly it's that I will otherwise eat them all, as many as possible in one sitting. They're quick but kind of annoying to make: The dough is hard to handle.

    I tend to prefer things made with hard whole-wheat flour (not nutritional/health demonization of white, just taste-preference). I even jimmy recipes to use WW in things that "can't be made with all WW flour", because I like the flavor and (micro-)texture better. I would never buy/use the (mostly Southern-favored) soft white self-rising white flours . . . except for the bag of good-quality self-rising white flour I keep tightly wrapped in the freezer, in case of biscuits. ;)
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,204 Member
    Potluck events are gross

    jh80s2p8tv50.jpg

    Meh. Cat hair is both a protein-rich food additive, and a fashion accessory. And the immune system needs Actual Work to do, or it gets up to mischief. ;)
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,871 Member
    edited December 2018
    FireOpalCO wrote: »
    pinuplove wrote: »
    FireOpalCO wrote: »
    I like the sugar crust on the coffee shop muffins as a confection but can do without the rest of it. As far as muffins that are reasonable to eat go, I like the simple Martha White apple cinnamon muffins; the envelope you add a half cup of milk to. Most people try too hard with muffins for my taste (other than the melted sugar crust :smiley: ).

    See to me, that's not a muffin. That's... cake or something. A muffin (back when I still could have gluten) was a simple thing I made with butter and buttermilk and flour and a very small amount of sugar and was tasty in its simplicity. It was a vehicle for good jam or jelly. Strawberry or blackberry preferably.

    That sounds like a biscuit.

    Where I'm from, biscuits are never sweetened. Neither is cornbread.

    Did I just stumble on another unpopular opinion?

    She said a small amount of sugar. Plenty of cornbread and biscuit recipes call for a 1-2 teaspoons of sugar. I don't consider it "sweetened" until you're talking about tablespoons or more. I've made sweet cornbread (with honey) and more traditional. It depends on what's being served (and who is eating).

    I don't have cast iron, so usually I do mine in cupcake tins. No cutting required! I wish I had the cast iron my mom had where they came out as little ears of corn.

    I see that in a lot of recipes and accept it as valid. I just don't add it :lol: My granny and mom stuck that one firmly in my mind, even though I've branched out greatly in my culinary skills since then. I even made bread (not cornbread) stuffing for the first time this year!

    We had one of those corn stick pans. I remember slicing hotdogs in half and covering them in cornbread batter to make homemade corndogs. I'm not sure what happened to it. I have several of my mom's old cast iron pans (worth their weight in gold, IMO!) but not that one.
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,871 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Potluck events are gross

    jh80s2p8tv50.jpg

    Meh. Cat hair is both a protein-rich food additive, and a fashion accessory. And the immune system needs Actual Work to do, or it gets up to mischief. ;)

    Quite certain I've eaten more than my fair share of cat hair. But, like dirt, it matters whether or not the cat hairs in questions are yours :laugh: Pot lucks do make me a bit uncomfortable if I think about it too much, but not enough to NOT eat anything that looks good to me.
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,871 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Potluck events are gross

    jh80s2p8tv50.jpg

    Meh. Cat hair is both a protein-rich food additive, and a fashion accessory. And the immune system needs Actual Work to do, or it gets up to mischief. ;)

    Fashion accessory? Well, what do you know - I'm finally stylish!
  • Bry_Fitness70
    Bry_Fitness70 Posts: 2,480 Member
    pinuplove wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Potluck events are gross

    jh80s2p8tv50.jpg

    Meh. Cat hair is both a protein-rich food additive, and a fashion accessory. And the immune system needs Actual Work to do, or it gets up to mischief. ;)

    Quite certain I've eaten more than my fair share of cat hair. But, like dirt, it matters whether or not the cat hairs in questions are yours :laugh: Pot lucks do make me a bit uncomfortable if I think about it too much, but not enough to NOT eat anything that looks good to me.
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Potluck events are gross

    jh80s2p8tv50.jpg

    Meh. Cat hair is both a protein-rich food additive, and a fashion accessory. And the immune system needs Actual Work to do, or it gets up to mischief. ;)

    Don't forget the added immune system benefits when the cat walks through its dirty litter box and then jumps up on the kitchen counters and table, transferring the litter box debris to the food being prepared. At potlucks, I usually just eat the stuff that I bring or has been brought in directly from a store, still in its packaging...
  • kellyjellybellyjelly
    kellyjellybellyjelly Posts: 9,480 Member
    edited December 2018
    jjpptt2 wrote: »
    Condiments are overrated. And the only reason for overrated rather than gross is because of BBQ sauce. BBQ sauce saves the entire grocery store isle.

    Nothing is worse than wasting precious calories on a subpar dressing/condiment especially when it's over 100+ calories.

    I don't mind the Bolthouse Farms Classic Ranch yogurt based dressing.

    For some of my really massive salads I would usually put a frozen meal on top & minimal dressing.
  • LiLee2018
    LiLee2018 Posts: 1,389 Member
    The flat is better than the drum.
    Also, it's a damn shame people waste the wing tip. All crunchy delicious skin? Hell yeah!

    Also... spam is delicious. Only when cooked through.
    Spam and eggs? YEP. Spam and rice?? Yes please!
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,871 Member
    No cats allowed on counter at our house. The table is a different issue (and a bit of a lost cause) but it gets wiped down thoroughly with disinfectant before each use. Doesn't matter - their fur still gets everywhere.

    They walk all over me with their cat litter feet when we're lounging on the sofa, anyway. And I scoop the *kitten* thing. Not going to lose sleep over that. It's just part of having pets.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,204 Member
    pinuplove wrote: »
    FireOpalCO wrote: »
    pinuplove wrote: »
    FireOpalCO wrote: »
    I like the sugar crust on the coffee shop muffins as a confection but can do without the rest of it. As far as muffins that are reasonable to eat go, I like the simple Martha White apple cinnamon muffins; the envelope you add a half cup of milk to. Most people try too hard with muffins for my taste (other than the melted sugar crust :smiley: ).

    See to me, that's not a muffin. That's... cake or something. A muffin (back when I still could have gluten) was a simple thing I made with butter and buttermilk and flour and a very small amount of sugar and was tasty in its simplicity. It was a vehicle for good jam or jelly. Strawberry or blackberry preferably.

    That sounds like a biscuit.

    Where I'm from, biscuits are never sweetened. Neither is cornbread.

    Did I just stumble on another unpopular opinion?

    She said a small amount of sugar. Plenty of cornbread and biscuit recipes call for a 1-2 teaspoons of sugar. I don't consider it "sweetened" until you're talking about tablespoons or more. I've made sweet cornbread (with honey) and more traditional. It depends on what's being served (and who is eating).

    I don't have cast iron, so usually I do mine in cupcake tins. No cutting required! I wish I had the cast iron my mom had where they came out as little ears of corn.

    I see that in a lot of recipes and accept it as valid. I just don't add it :lol: My granny and mom stuck that one firmly in my mind, even though I've branched out greatly in my culinary skills since then. I even made bread (not cornbread) stuffing for the first time this year!

    We had one of those corn stick pans. I remember slicing hotdogs in half and covering them in cornbread batter to make homemade corndogs. I'm not sure what happened to it. I have several of my mom's old cast iron pans (worth their weight in gold, IMO!) but not that one.

    It's not really there so much to add sweetness, as to improve browning, I believe.

    BTW: You can still buy those cast-iron corn-ear cornbread pans, brand new, if you look around. For example:

    https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-L27C3-Stick-Cornstick-Pan/dp/B00004S9I6

  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,871 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    pinuplove wrote: »
    FireOpalCO wrote: »
    pinuplove wrote: »
    FireOpalCO wrote: »
    I like the sugar crust on the coffee shop muffins as a confection but can do without the rest of it. As far as muffins that are reasonable to eat go, I like the simple Martha White apple cinnamon muffins; the envelope you add a half cup of milk to. Most people try too hard with muffins for my taste (other than the melted sugar crust :smiley: ).

    See to me, that's not a muffin. That's... cake or something. A muffin (back when I still could have gluten) was a simple thing I made with butter and buttermilk and flour and a very small amount of sugar and was tasty in its simplicity. It was a vehicle for good jam or jelly. Strawberry or blackberry preferably.

    That sounds like a biscuit.

    Where I'm from, biscuits are never sweetened. Neither is cornbread.

    Did I just stumble on another unpopular opinion?

    She said a small amount of sugar. Plenty of cornbread and biscuit recipes call for a 1-2 teaspoons of sugar. I don't consider it "sweetened" until you're talking about tablespoons or more. I've made sweet cornbread (with honey) and more traditional. It depends on what's being served (and who is eating).

    I don't have cast iron, so usually I do mine in cupcake tins. No cutting required! I wish I had the cast iron my mom had where they came out as little ears of corn.

    I see that in a lot of recipes and accept it as valid. I just don't add it :lol: My granny and mom stuck that one firmly in my mind, even though I've branched out greatly in my culinary skills since then. I even made bread (not cornbread) stuffing for the first time this year!

    We had one of those corn stick pans. I remember slicing hotdogs in half and covering them in cornbread batter to make homemade corndogs. I'm not sure what happened to it. I have several of my mom's old cast iron pans (worth their weight in gold, IMO!) but not that one.

    It's not really there so much to add sweetness, as to improve browning, I believe.

    BTW: You can still buy those cast-iron corn-ear cornbread pans, brand new, if you look around. For example:

    https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-L27C3-Stick-Cornstick-Pan/dp/B00004S9I6

    But I want one that has 50 years of seasoning under its belt! :lol: The main thing would be the history, for me. They're not particularly functional. 7 tiny sticks for a family with 2 teenage boys doesn't go very far! But thank you for looking :heart:
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,871 Member
    edited December 2018
    I keep coming back to the picture of the cat with his tail in the food and laughing. It's so wrong, but so funny :lol: One hopes the picture-taker alerted the chef and appropriate steps were taken.

    ETA, pictures like this disturb me more:
    3s9vjgm60oav.jpg
  • FireOpalCO
    FireOpalCO Posts: 641 Member
    pinuplove wrote: »
    I keep coming back to the picture of the cat with his tail in the food and laughing. It's so wrong, but so funny :lol: One hopes the picture-taker alerted the chef and appropriate steps were taken.

    ETA, pictures like this disturb me more:
    3s9vjgm60oav.jpg

    Oh look, it's my college roommate. Lived with her for one summer. Her bedroom was WORSE.
  • FireOpalCO
    FireOpalCO Posts: 641 Member
    edited December 2018
    AnnPT77 wrote: »

    I also don't much worry about the "automated hand dryers blowing fecal matter through the public restroom" kind of stuff. Still healthy at 63; doesn't seem to have been a big physical penalty for this reckless behavior, so far. ;)

    Actually what's worse are the high-powered flush toilets in public bathrooms. They never have lids and they've been shown to throw microscopic material far enough it gets into the ventilation system and spreads to new areas. They found this in hospitals and is a real danger to patients.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,204 Member
    pinuplove wrote: »
    I keep coming back to the picture of the cat with his tail in the food and laughing. It's so wrong, but so funny :lol: One hopes the picture-taker alerted the chef and appropriate steps were taken.

    ETA, pictures like this disturb me more:
    3s9vjgm60oav.jpg

    No blue/green fuzz on the food, and it looks not-dried-out. Aftermath of a meal, not ongoing disaster, if you ask me. Don't ask me how I know. ;)
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,204 Member
    FireOpalCO wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »

    I also don't much worry about the "automated hand dryers blowing fecal matter through the public restroom" kind of stuff. Still healthy at 63; doesn't seem to have been a big physical penalty for this reckless behavior, so far. ;)

    Actually what's worse are the high-powered flush toilets in public bathrooms. They never have lids and they've been shown to throw microscopic material far enough it gets into the ventilation system and spreads to new areas. They found this in hospitals and is a real danger to patients.

    Those people include the immunocompromised. They need maximum sanitation, no dispute.

    I've been immunocompromised, I get it. (Had cats at the time, BTW.)

    Immunocompromised people need to be more careful in public, in general. The rest of us were designed to live in places like caves - not too sanitary. ;) I grant that moderns are healthier, and sanitation is a good part of the reason, but there's decent evidence we can overdo the obsession, not just creating resistant bugs but also encouraging allergies and that sort of thing.

    BTW, IMU, the home toilet does the same thing, on a smaller scale. Some sources advise against open seat-cover and open-air toothbrush storage.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,092 Member
    pinuplove wrote: »
    FireOpalCO wrote: »
    I like the sugar crust on the coffee shop muffins as a confection but can do without the rest of it. As far as muffins that are reasonable to eat go, I like the simple Martha White apple cinnamon muffins; the envelope you add a half cup of milk to. Most people try too hard with muffins for my taste (other than the melted sugar crust :smiley: ).

    See to me, that's not a muffin. That's... cake or something. A muffin (back when I still could have gluten) was a simple thing I made with butter and buttermilk and flour and a very small amount of sugar and was tasty in its simplicity. It was a vehicle for good jam or jelly. Strawberry or blackberry preferably.

    That sounds like a biscuit.

    Where I'm from, biscuits are never sweetened. Neither is cornbread.

    Did I just stumble on another unpopular opinion?

    Yes, but "a very small amount of sugar" seems to move the needle a smaller distance from "biscuit" than the lack of eggs moves the needle away from "muffin." Maybe a scone? Or shortbread? (Different from shortbread cookies.) Haven't made either for a few years, but I think butter, buttermilk, flour, and a little sugar would be a reasonable set of ingredients for either. You'd need baking soda or powder as well.
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,871 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    pinuplove wrote: »
    I keep coming back to the picture of the cat with his tail in the food and laughing. It's so wrong, but so funny :lol: One hopes the picture-taker alerted the chef and appropriate steps were taken.

    ETA, pictures like this disturb me more:
    3s9vjgm60oav.jpg

    No blue/green fuzz on the food, and it looks not-dried-out. Aftermath of a meal, not ongoing disaster, if you ask me. Don't ask me how I know. ;)

    That occurred to me, but I wasn't inclined to search for 'moldy dishes' :lol:
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,092 Member
    pinuplove wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    pinuplove wrote: »
    FireOpalCO wrote: »
    pinuplove wrote: »
    FireOpalCO wrote: »
    I like the sugar crust on the coffee shop muffins as a confection but can do without the rest of it. As far as muffins that are reasonable to eat go, I like the simple Martha White apple cinnamon muffins; the envelope you add a half cup of milk to. Most people try too hard with muffins for my taste (other than the melted sugar crust :smiley: ).

    See to me, that's not a muffin. That's... cake or something. A muffin (back when I still could have gluten) was a simple thing I made with butter and buttermilk and flour and a very small amount of sugar and was tasty in its simplicity. It was a vehicle for good jam or jelly. Strawberry or blackberry preferably.

    That sounds like a biscuit.

    Where I'm from, biscuits are never sweetened. Neither is cornbread.

    Did I just stumble on another unpopular opinion?

    She said a small amount of sugar. Plenty of cornbread and biscuit recipes call for a 1-2 teaspoons of sugar. I don't consider it "sweetened" until you're talking about tablespoons or more. I've made sweet cornbread (with honey) and more traditional. It depends on what's being served (and who is eating).

    I don't have cast iron, so usually I do mine in cupcake tins. No cutting required! I wish I had the cast iron my mom had where they came out as little ears of corn.

    I see that in a lot of recipes and accept it as valid. I just don't add it :lol: My granny and mom stuck that one firmly in my mind, even though I've branched out greatly in my culinary skills since then. I even made bread (not cornbread) stuffing for the first time this year!

    We had one of those corn stick pans. I remember slicing hotdogs in half and covering them in cornbread batter to make homemade corndogs. I'm not sure what happened to it. I have several of my mom's old cast iron pans (worth their weight in gold, IMO!) but not that one.

    It's not really there so much to add sweetness, as to improve browning, I believe.

    BTW: You can still buy those cast-iron corn-ear cornbread pans, brand new, if you look around. For example:

    https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-L27C3-Stick-Cornstick-Pan/dp/B00004S9I6

    But I want one that has 50 years of seasoning under its belt! :lol: The main thing would be the history, for me. They're not particularly functional. 7 tiny sticks for a family with 2 teenage boys doesn't go very far! But thank you for looking :heart:

    You can pick one up at a yard sale. Unfortunately, a lot of them are in such bad shape that you basically have to strip rust or baked on food (and years of seasoning) off of them and start over. But in just 50 years you'll have what you want. :smile:

    I have one that's more than 50 years old, and I love it. My mom (its first owner) never made cornbread in it, but I do sometimes. Although, if I've got a lot of people traipsing through the kitchen, I'll still sometimes use a square aluminum pan, for safety.
  • leanjogreen18
    leanjogreen18 Posts: 2,492 Member
    edited December 2018
    Mixing sweet w/savory=yuck!

    Fruit on pizza - no way!
    Fruit on salad - no freaking way.
    Brown sugar in oatmeal - gross only butter & salt!
    Sweet & Sour sauce - ok:) I'll make an exception.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,092 Member
    FireOpalCO wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »

    I also don't much worry about the "automated hand dryers blowing fecal matter through the public restroom" kind of stuff. Still healthy at 63; doesn't seem to have been a big physical penalty for this reckless behavior, so far. ;)

    Actually what's worse are the high-powered flush toilets in public bathrooms. They never have lids and they've been shown to throw microscopic material far enough it gets into the ventilation system and spreads to new areas. They found this in hospitals and is a real danger to patients.

    Maybe instead of a "hug" button we need an "ugh" button.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,204 Member
    pinuplove wrote: »
    FireOpalCO wrote: »
    I like the sugar crust on the coffee shop muffins as a confection but can do without the rest of it. As far as muffins that are reasonable to eat go, I like the simple Martha White apple cinnamon muffins; the envelope you add a half cup of milk to. Most people try too hard with muffins for my taste (other than the melted sugar crust :smiley: ).

    See to me, that's not a muffin. That's... cake or something. A muffin (back when I still could have gluten) was a simple thing I made with butter and buttermilk and flour and a very small amount of sugar and was tasty in its simplicity. It was a vehicle for good jam or jelly. Strawberry or blackberry preferably.

    That sounds like a biscuit.

    Where I'm from, biscuits are never sweetened. Neither is cornbread.

    Did I just stumble on another unpopular opinion?

    Yes, but "a very small amount of sugar" seems to move the needle a smaller distance from "biscuit" than the lack of eggs moves the needle away from "muffin." Maybe a scone? Or shortbread? (Different from shortbread cookies.) Haven't made either for a few years, but I think butter, buttermilk, flour, and a little sugar would be a reasonable set of ingredients for either. You'd need baking soda or powder as well.

    Part of our rhetorical difficulty may be that there are at least two types of "biscuits", baking powder biscuits (as I call the one) and buttermilk biscuits (the other in my lexicon).

    I make both, the former for general eating yum, especially at breakfast/brunch, and the latter for things like strawberry shortcake** (and I'd probably use the latter for biscuits and gravy, if I did biscuits and gravy - it's not a very vegetarian thing, usually ;) ).

    The baking powder biscuit has a bit more shortening, and a much lower milk to flour ratio. The buttermilk biscuit (of course) uses buttermilk for the milk (of course), but much more milk to flour: The dough is sloppy hard to handle, barely do-able, floured in order to make it possible, and dropped in biscuit-sized lumps in a cake pan so they don't spread too much. In contrast, the baking powder biscuits are rolled, cut, and set individually on a baking sheet to bake.

    There are also significant differences in the leavening effects, but that gets silly-technical.

    The baking powder biscuit has more kinship to scones, as a flavor/texture thing, than the buttermilk biscuit. The things called buttermilk biscuits in most restaurants are much more like the baking powder biscuits, but not all the way there.

    In my case, the baking powder recipe has zero sugar, but the buttermilk recipe has a tablespoon; I think that's maybe less important in the final result than the flour/liquid/leavening issues.

    ** Strawberry shortcake on biscuits: That's an embedded possibly-unpopular opinion. I like a not-too-sweet substrate for strawberry shortcake. I know some people use actual cake-y things. Just no.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,092 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    pinuplove wrote: »
    FireOpalCO wrote: »
    I like the sugar crust on the coffee shop muffins as a confection but can do without the rest of it. As far as muffins that are reasonable to eat go, I like the simple Martha White apple cinnamon muffins; the envelope you add a half cup of milk to. Most people try too hard with muffins for my taste (other than the melted sugar crust :smiley: ).

    See to me, that's not a muffin. That's... cake or something. A muffin (back when I still could have gluten) was a simple thing I made with butter and buttermilk and flour and a very small amount of sugar and was tasty in its simplicity. It was a vehicle for good jam or jelly. Strawberry or blackberry preferably.

    That sounds like a biscuit.

    Where I'm from, biscuits are never sweetened. Neither is cornbread.

    Did I just stumble on another unpopular opinion?

    Yes, but "a very small amount of sugar" seems to move the needle a smaller distance from "biscuit" than the lack of eggs moves the needle away from "muffin." Maybe a scone? Or shortbread? (Different from shortbread cookies.) Haven't made either for a few years, but I think butter, buttermilk, flour, and a little sugar would be a reasonable set of ingredients for either. You'd need baking soda or powder as well.

    Part of our rhetorical difficulty may be that there are at least two types of "biscuits", baking powder biscuits (as I call the one) and buttermilk biscuits (the other in my lexicon).

    I make both, the former for general eating yum, especially at breakfast/brunch, and the latter for things like strawberry shortcake** (and I'd probably use the latter for biscuits and gravy, if I did biscuits and gravy - it's not a very vegetarian thing, usually ;) ).

    The baking powder biscuit has a bit more shortening, and a much lower milk to flour ratio. The buttermilk biscuit (of course) uses buttermilk for the milk (of course), but much more milk to flour: The dough is sloppy hard to handle, barely do-able, floured in order to make it possible, and dropped in biscuit-sized lumps in a cake pan so they don't spread too much. In contrast, the baking powder biscuits are rolled, cut, and set individually on a baking sheet to bake.

    There are also significant differences in the leavening effects, but that gets silly-technical.

    The baking powder biscuit has more kinship to scones, as a flavor/texture thing, than the buttermilk biscuit. The things called buttermilk biscuits in most restaurants are much more like the baking powder biscuits, but not all the way there.

    In my case, the baking powder recipe has zero sugar, but the buttermilk recipe has a tablespoon; I think that's maybe less important in the final result than the flour/liquid/leavening issues.

    ** Strawberry shortcake on biscuits: That's an embedded possibly-unpopular opinion. I like a not-too-sweet substrate for strawberry shortcake. I know some people use actual cake-y things. Just no.

    My main point, which I could have done a better job of emphasizing is that muffins have eggs, and the list of ingredients that were given up thread for muffins didn't include eggs (flour, buttermilk, butter, a little sugar). Someone said that sounded more like biscuits, which set off this discussion over whether biscuits could have a little sugar, and my point was that without eggs, the original "recipe" was indeed much more like biscuits than like muffins.

    Thanks on the shortcake discussion, which was what I meant when I said "shortbread (not shortbread cookies)" -- I was actually thinking of shortcake.

    I think your distinction between baking powder and buttermilk biscuits based on the thickness of the dough is a bit idiosyncratic, i.e., based on the particular biscuit recipes you or your family used. In my experience both baking power/milk biscuits and baking soda/buttermilk biscuits can come in a range of dough stiffnesses, and I think that the actual distinction is the "silly-technical" leavening distinction you allude to (baking soda needs an acid ingredient to react with, hence the "buttermilk" designator distinguishing it from a baking powder biscuit that doesn't need an acid ingredient).
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    pinuplove wrote: »
    Also, cornbread should always be baked in cast iron and cut into wedges, as pictured. This ensures everyone gets an equal portion of the crispy sides. Squares (or whatever square shape you can get from a round pan) is not acceptable and may result in table fights :tongue:

    I have never had skillet cornbread, only baking dish cornbread, and I concur. Family hierarchy comes into play in a square loaf. Feelings are hurt.

    And I will change my story - yes, the biscuits you pictured are also traditionally biscuits as I would think of them. Perhaps the dividing line is not much flavor/crispy bottom/ meant to be a vehicle for other flavors - biscuit.
    Flavored/not crispy/probably best with a cup of coffee or tea - muffin.

    This will give me something to think about rather than working :drinker:

    I grew up eating a lot of these:

    cat-head-biscuits.jpg

    Cat head biscuits!

    BTW, I like my cornbread cooked unsweetened but with honey butter on the table.
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,871 Member
    edited December 2018
    kimny72 wrote: »
    pinuplove wrote: »
    Also, cornbread should always be baked in cast iron and cut into wedges, as pictured. This ensures everyone gets an equal portion of the crispy sides. Squares (or whatever square shape you can get from a round pan) is not acceptable and may result in table fights :tongue:

    I have never had skillet cornbread, only baking dish cornbread, and I concur. Family hierarchy comes into play in a square loaf. Feelings are hurt.

    And I will change my story - yes, the biscuits you pictured are also traditionally biscuits as I would think of them. Perhaps the dividing line is not much flavor/crispy bottom/ meant to be a vehicle for other flavors - biscuit.
    Flavored/not crispy/probably best with a cup of coffee or tea - muffin.

    This will give me something to think about rather than working :drinker:

    I grew up eating a lot of these:

    Cat head biscuits!

    BTW, I like my cornbread cooked unsweetened but with honey butter on the table.

    Are those different from drop biscuits?

    My dad ate cornbread and milk. He'd crumble up a piece of (unsweetened) cornbread into a glass, cover it with milk, and eat with a spoon. I've had it. It's not bad.

    My grandpa liked cream gravy on his chocolate cake. I was never brave enough to try that one.