Under the Apron Strings: Elevating Your Thanksgiving with Herbs
My first recollection of herbs was the dill that Grandmommie used to make pickles.
On the other hand, mama grew dill, parsley, chives, oregano and basil. She did not use them for seasoning, but rather as a garnish to add greenery and aroma to a flower arrangement.
Her parsley was prolific, even at Thanksgiving and Christmas and she used them as beautiful garnishes for the turkey and ham platters.
Today, I love growing rosemary, parsley, basil, chives, thyme, and oregano in my small herb garden for easy picking in our courtyard. During growing season, any individual combination of herbs make for fresh flavors when chopped and added into the original biscuit recipe.
Rosemary in the winter; parsley and chives together in Spring; and basil in the summer are some of my favorite additions.
This year, try adding rosemary into your Thanksgiving biscuits – it will add depth to your dishes and elevate your leftover turkey sandwiches in the days after Thanksgiving.
Below you can find my go to biscuit recipe, passed down from Grandmommie and when exactly to add the herbs.
Ingredients
2 cups self-rising flour
1/4 cup shortening
2/3 to 3/4 cup whole milk
Fresh rosemary
Directions
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Measure and always remember to sift 2 cups of self-rising flour into a mixing bowl. Add in 1/4 cup of shortening (use Wonder Cup for measurement) using a pastry blender or two forks until the particles of shortening are the size of grains of rice or peas.
At this point, one tablespoon of herbs, for Thanksgiving, I recommend rosemary, and/or 1/2 cup cheese can be added.
Slowly add the milk and stir with a large spoon until the flour/shortening mixture is thoroughly moistened. Do not over mix.
Turn the dough from the bowl onto floured parchment paper or a pastry mat.
Using as few strokes as possible with floured rolling pin, roll the dough out onto a uniform thickness of 1/2 to 3/4 inch.
Cut the biscuits using a floured cutter (do not twist the cutter) and transfer to a shallow baking pan. Select cutter size depending on the condiment used.
Keep re-rolling dough and cutting the biscuits until there is that piece of dough leftover. We call that the ugly biscuit, but it’s our favorite. The crevices absorb the jam or jelly so we always fight over that one.
Arrange the biscuits on the pan so that each biscuit is slightly touching the one next to it. They like to be cozy.
Place the pan in the oven for 10 to 14 minutes or until lightly browned.
Remove the biscuits from the oven and brush with the melted honey butter.
Then remove biscuits to platter unless you are using a baking stone, other-wise the bottoms will harden.
To Reheat: Grandmommie never used a microwave. She always said to first, “wet their little faces” by sprinkling water across their tops before placing them in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes.
Find this recipe and more in my book Breads & Spreads here.