So, how many of you all that play “the music” are also into cooking? I love to cook and have enjoyed becoming better at baking. I’ve been messing around with soda bread recipes and ready to learn how to make scones. Here in the deep South, biscuits are a staple of our cuisine, although I have never hand made any. But, scones look to be very much like biscuits but perhaps sweeter than savory. Of course, it depends on what your aim is. I also have enjoyed learning to make beef or lamb pies. We bought some ground lamb Christmas Eve and I browned it, added a brown gravy, and then made little meat pies with it and it was wonderful. I had to do some research to see what “mince meat pies” are, and it’s different that what I had in mind.
I made Scones for the first time Saturday morning. Turned out great. Just plain with sugar (no glaze on top). Had with Mango butter and also some at a later time with Apple butter. Both are great.
During this past August, when we spent a week in Ireland, I learned to make scones at Rathbaun Farm. As it turns out, it matches pretty well with the way my grandmother (1st generation immigrant from Ireland) taught me to make biscuits, only at Rathbaun we didn’t get red eye gravy… In this part of the country, you can find the descendants of quite a few “traditional” Irish and Scottish dishes.
Oh Dave, I bet that was fun and I’m certain it was neat to see how close the recipe was. There’s untold different ways to make a biscuit but at the end of the day, they’re all flour and butter. I’m glad that you have her recipe. Food and music go together very well, and they both make life much better when you have ample quality of both!
But, scones look to be very much like biscuits but perhaps sweeter than savory.
It really depends on the type of scone you make, plain brown ones, fruit scones or, perhaps more modern, a savoury one (which can have tomato, cheese, peppers or whatever you have handy). Baking powder, buttermilk, baking soda, self raising flour etc are all different ways to tackle them. But overall it’s just about the simplest of simple things to make, no extensive preparation (unless you use yeast as your raising agent but that is just considered too fussy most of the time).
It was not uncommon , when arriving unexpected at a house for a few tunes, for the woman of the house to quickly make some dough, stick it in the oven of the range so scones would be ready by the time you’d have the warm up tunes out of the way, and together with mugs of strong white tea, ofcourse. But that was old fashioned country house hospitality, you don’t get that as much these days
More of coffee and savoury scone with pepper jam sort of person myself but there you have it.
Mr. Gumby, you made a comment that took me back a few decades.
When I was a boy from birth up to at least 16 or so, which would have been around 1991, there was a culture- at least here in the deep South (USA)- that it was entirely acceptable to stop by someone’s home on the way through town, etc. just to say hi and to enjoy some chat. Most often, tea (sweet tea here, served on ice) would have been offered or a coke, or a beer. Not too much later toward the mid 90’s onward, dropping in unannounced became inconsiderate and obtrusive. I miss those days of stopping by to say hello, but we are so busy that if you’re not super close, I’d be embarrassed for someone to drop by on the off chance to say hello. Those days are gone I suppose- certainly here in America. Mobile phones, “social” media, and the like have really dented people’s relatability on scales likely never imagined.
I do a lot of cooking, not so much baking. I made scones a handful of times a couple of decades ago. I make biscuits occasionally, mostly for biscuits and gravy. I also make (American) dumplings for either chicken and dumplings or beef stew. I cook a lot of Mexican, Indian, and Cajun.
I grew up in New England, and we always dropped by each others houses. When I lived i rural Virginia in the 80s-90s, we did the same. Now I’m in the burbs, where it’s expected to arrange any visit a day or more in advance.
Yes, I’m good on the tacos and now learning how to make a curry. It is sad that we have to make that appointment to visit, but at the same time I guess if you were to knock on my door in a few minutes, I might be embarrassed to have someone in if it’s not as picked up as I’d like.
Been cooking my whole life. First lesson in my mother’s kitchen was stirring the sauce (to prevent sticking) until the pot simmered.
Favorite books: “Moosewood Cookbook” by Katzen and “World of the East Vegetarian Cooking” by Madhur Jaffrey.
Most memorable experience: making garam masala from scratch using a coffee grinder. The vapors made my dizzy !
Was gifted an “instant pot” about 10 years ago. Simple recipes. Large quantities. Very handy for elder-care bulk meal prep. Portion+freeze for easy meals later.
Bought an “air fryer” 2 years ago. Love it ! Best experience was cooking a turkey breast. Effortless temp-checks allow precise control. No more bending over + pulling out oven racks. We old farts don’t like that anymore .
Also, spent 5 years with a friend perfecting chocolate truffles. Made a pumped-water bath to control the tempering cycle. Been a signature Christmas gift for years.
I’ve been grinding any spices I use a lot of for some time (cumin, cardamom, coriander, cloves, cinnamon. . .). A year-plus ago I was struck by a car and lost my sense of smell (took two months to figure it out). Spice-grinding day used to be a highlight for me, especially cardamom. Now it’s just kind of ho-hum. The nerves are growing back slowly – I can smell ammonia but not bleach, smoking cutting oil but not smoking wood, garlic but not onions.
In this part of the country, you can find the descendants of quite a few “traditional” Irish and Scottish dishes.
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