Recipes from story books don't always work well

Some of you may remember that I read "The Best Cook in the World" and was fascinated some of the old-timey recipes therein.  I did an entry about my adventures with cheese grits, but the one recipe I really wanted to try was Butter Rolls.

It's important to know the author's mom did not use recipes, nor did she measure ingredients.  She would use "a handful of lard" or "a pinch of salt", never bothering with measuring spoons or cups.  In the writing of the book, her son watched her cook the dishes from his childhood, then tried to translate it into a real recipe that others could use.  I found out when making my first batch of grits that the amounts given in the book aren't necessarily going to work.  Old Fashioned grits, according to directions on the box, need four cups of water to one cup of grits.  I started out using the recipe in the book, but had to add water several times.  Finally I used the recipe on the box, which worked just fine.  

In the recipe for butter rolls, there were difficulties because some of the things were so obviously not right; I don't know whether to blame this on the author or his mom. 
Remember, though, that the book was never meant to be an ordinary recipe book.  It was all about the stories surrounding the food that author Rick Bragg remembered so fondly.  And yet, he did attempt to give recipes.   

When they did the the butter rolls, his mother gave her biscuit recipe that required 3 to 4 cups of flour.  When I read farther, she was saying to use an 8 X 8 inch pan that would hold one quart:  That's ridiculous.  That much flour makes a lot of biscuits, and then you're going to be pouring liquid in the pan before the biscuits "go swimming", as Mrs. Bragg said.  So I pulled out an 8 X 8 glass pan that holds two quarts,  twice the size mentioned, wondering if even that was large enough.  (Spoiler:  it wasn't.)

I used my own biscuit recipe using two cups of flour, then formed them into small biscuits as big around as silver dollars, just like the lady said, sprinkled cinnamon on them and then covered them up with wax paper (I question whether that step was really necessary).  Then it was time to mix the liquids:  Sweetened condensed milk, sugar, some whole milk, vanilla, and a stick of butter, diced.

I poured that into the glass dish, floated the little biscuits in there, and flipped them over to coat them.  There was only room in the pan for about half the biscuits I'd made, so I had some to throw out, which didn't make me too happy... but the three chickens enjoyed it.  I baptized each biscuit into the liquid as instructed and placed the pan in the preheated oven.  After fifteen minutes in the oven, I pulled the pan out and turned over each and every little biscuit, then put them in the oven again.

It was probably less that five minutes later I smelled something burning:  the liquid in the too-small pan was bubbling out all over the oven.  What a mess!  If I ever make this again, I will use a nine by thirteen pan, and I won't have to throw good biscuit dough away OR clean up a mess.  We aimed a fan at the smoke alarm in the kitchen to keep it quiet and opened some windows to clear the smoke; I'm doing this entry 24 hours later and the house STILL smells like burnt sugar when you come in from outside.

The end result was very tasty, although a little too sweet for my taste, and very rich.  We both liked it, but it isn't something I can eat a lot of.  

I will make it again sometime in a larger pan, and then I imagine my experimenting with this recipe will be done.  If you're a person who can eat candy for breakfast, you might like this, because this biscuits are that sweet and rich. 

The first time I played around with this dish, it didn't even make it to the oven:  That's because there are conflicts in the various ways the book presents.  Here's an example:  In this chapter, he relates how his mother told him to make this, telling it like this:  "Now it is time to make the bath.  Into a clean bowl, pour the sweetened condensed milk; then fill the empty can with whole milk and add that to the bowl."  That's what I did the first time, and learned too late that you do NOT fill the can with whole milk, because in the actual recipe given before Rick tells the story, it says 1/2 cup of milk.  I'd already mixed it when I saw this discrepancy, and everything went to waste.  

I blame it on Rick, who admits he is not a cook.  That's probably why he didn't notice his mistake.  I really doubt whether many people tried to make the dishes anyway because really, it's all about the stories.  

I wish I had remembered to take a picture of the finished product.  Maybe next time.  

That's it for today's cooking show.  Happy Father's day to all the dads!