Chuckwagon, speaking of biscuits, I'm not sure about axe-flavored ones but I just took a look at your sourdough biscuit and rye bread recipes and they look great:
http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?t=5830
Now that I'm beginning to post, I'm discovering that I don't really know where to post recipes, in existing threads or by starting my own new ones. So, feel free to move my recipes if appropriate and let me know how you prefer me to post recipes in the future.
My specialties are traditional Southern regional cooking (including southern barbecue) and seafood, and in the past I've owned and operated both barbecue and native Florida seafood restaurants.
Anyway, although I like fooling around with sourdough breads they're usually not worth the effort to me because I've got so many other non-sourdough recipes that work well for me. I just posted a couple of my rye bread recipes here:
http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?p=25118#25118
I thought maybe I'd share a couple of traditional southern breads, as I learned from my grandmothers and great-grandmothers. This is how we've made them in the Deep South for centuries but it's now becoming a lost art that few remember.
Southern Skillet Cornbread
This is my favorite cornbread. You'll find it a bit different from the way most people make it today. Most notably, it's cooked in a skillet on top of the stove, not baked in the oven. In the Old South, baking was done in wood-fired outdoor ovens, or in detached kitchens. Cooking indoors was hot, unpleasant work and many cooks avoided it, particularly in the summertime.
2/3 cup plain white cornmeal (preferably stone-ground)
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 large egg
3 Tbsp (approx.) bacon grease
1 cup (approx.) milk
Melt the bacon grease in an 8" or 9" heavy skillet (cast iron is best) over medium-high heat. In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients together with a large spoon. Add the egg and 2/3 of the milk. Stir to mix, then pour most of the melted bacon grease into the batter, leaving a little in the bottom of the skillet. Stir again and check the consistency. It should be pourable, about the consistency of thick pancake batter. If needed, add more milk or a little water.
Pour the batter into the skillet, cover and immediately reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook about 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges begin to appear dry and it's beginning to set in the center. There should be bubbles on top that aren't closing back up. Run a spatula or pancake turner under the bread, lift it slightly (it should be firm enough not to break or fall apart), put the skillet upside down over the top, and flip the whole thing so the uncooked portion is now in the bottom of the skillet. Cover again and cook another 10 minutes or so. Turn it out onto a plate, cut into wedges and serve it hot with butter. Serves 6.
South Georgia Biscuits
These are traditional hand-formed biscuits as made by my family for generations. Unlike most recipes, they are formed entirely by hand, not rolled and cut. Once you master the technique, you can make them very quickly and will find the texture and appearance to be much better than rolled biscuits.
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup whole milk
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a large bowl, stir dry ingredients together. Cut in shortning with a pastry blender or by rubbing between your fingers until the mixture resembles course meal. Pour in the milk all at once and stir with a large spoon until the dough is evenly moist. It should be sticky. Let it rest for a couple of minutes. No kneading or turning the dough is necessary. You do this as part of forming the biscuits.
With well-floured hands, pinch off pieces of dough (about 12), and roll them into balls between the palms of your hands. This is also the kneading process so you need to work the dough a little and product well-formed balls, not just spoon it out in lumps. If the dough is too sticky to work, sprinkle a little more flour on it but you want to keep it as sticky as possible to produce a light, moist biscuit. Place the balls a couple of inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. With floured knuckles, press each ball down to about 1/2 inch thickness.
Bake on the center rack of your oven at 450 degrees for 11 to 12 minutes, until browned. Serve hot with butter.
NOTES:
1. Stale baking powder won't rise. Be sure you use fresh, in-date baking powder.
2. 2. If using self-rising flour, omit the baking powder and salt.
3. To make buttermilk biscuits, add 1/4 tsp baking soda to the other dry ingredients. Buttermilk will make a sticker dough and you may need to sprinkle a little more flour on the dough as you're forming the biscuits.
4. Some people like their biscuits sweet instead of salty. If you're one of them, reduce the salt a little and add some sugar.
5. Biscuits need to cook in a hot (450 degree) oven. If uncertain about your oven, check the temperature with a thermometer. Cook on the center rack (or the the next one above it). If your rack is too high or too low, either the tops or the bottoms are likely to burn before they're done.
6. I originally posted this recipe several years ago on Allrecipes and it has since become one of their top-rated recipes. If interested, the comments and ratings are on allrecipes.com, under the title South Georgia Biscuits. Their editors slightly modified my recipe, without my permission. It annoyed me and I've never submitted to them again. This is the original version I submitted to them. The modified version on allrecipies calls for kneading the dough, which is an unnecessary step and produces an inferior result.
OOOOoooooooooo!
