Note: yes these look ugly. The recipe is almost 200 years old and had no measurements. Of course your biscuits are better; that wasn’t really the point here.
In December of 1953, Governor Theodore McKeldin and his wife Honolulu “Lulu” Manzer McKeldin celebrated the holiday season by serving guests a “typical Maryland dinner.” The menu included oyster stew, wild duck, and Maryland beaten biscuits.
Of all the foods that bear the state’s name, Maryland beaten biscuits once enjoyed the most widespread popularity – and for the longest span of time.
Beaten biscuits originate from the early 1800s, when reliable chemical leavening agents and sometimes yeast were not readily available. According to culinary historian Joyce White, “bakers
pounded or beat the biscuit dough to introduce air into it, and the
beating also served to disintegrate the dough’s protein (gluten).“
Advertisements around the country advertised both the biscuits and the implements to make them throughout the late 1800s and early 20th century.
1928 advertisement from the Morning Register, Eugene Oregon
The concept of laboriously pounding the heck out of the dough yourself, having an enslaved person do this labor for you, or purchasing a bulky appliance to assist with this task raises some philosophical questions about food.
Although the most famous bakery to produce them, Orell’s in Wye Mills,
was on the Eastern Shore, Maryland Beaten Biscuits were popular
statewide, and other bakeries produced them throughout Maryland, even in
the panhandle. “The News” of Frederick described hail that fell during a 1914 storm “as
big as Maryland beaten biscuits.”
Southern Heritage Cookbook illustration featuring a “biscuit brake.”
Their popularity certainly endured for the longest on the Eastern Shore. When Herman Miller “Dick” Orrell III, the heir and owner of Orell’s Beaten Biscuits passed away at 83 in 2013, the bakery closed with the intention to eventually re-open. The Maryland Beaten Biscuit Company in Sudlersville sometimes peddles the biscuits at farmers’ markets in that region.
“Maryland’s Vanishing Lives” by John Sherwood features a photo of an elderly couple, Roby and Elma Cornelius of Rock Hall, brandishing a baseball bat and an axe, with trays of golf-ball sized biscuits proudly laid out before them.
“There is something highly amusing in watching this peace-loving, elderly couple banging away with a baseball bat on a helpless mound of dough, but the results are wonderful and soothing. And, after all, it is a Maryland tradition they’re carrying on.” – John Sherwood, Maryland’s Vanishing Lives
1881 advertisement
Not everyone remembers the biscuits so fondly. My cousin recalls, “my grandmother always had Orrell’s from Wye Mills waiting for my dad when
we would visit. Great memories, but wow those things were hockey pucks.“ To modern diners, fluffier and flakier biscuits are more appealing.
A South Carolina columnist printed a recipe for Maryland Beaten biscuits in 1982, with commentary:
”…[Maryland beaten biscuits] are pretty hard, and I tend to think that maybe the [Civil War] soldiers could have used them as bullets in their guns. But the biscuits do have a delicious taste… When I think I might have had to beat biscuits with an axe, I feel lucky to have fast food chains making them for me early in the morning.“ – Karen Petit, The Index-Journal (Greenwood, South Carolina)
Beaten biscuits still enjoy some attention in the South. A “Garden and Gun” article (”The Art of the Beaten Biscuit”) sang their praises in April 2015. In this article, as in the Wikipedia entry on beaten biscuits, no mention of Maryland can be found.
1909 advertisement
I roped some family members into taking turns beating some biscuit dough
on a recent afternoon. The biscuits we produced were a little tough on
the outside but they went well with a creamy gravy.
Recipe:
- 4 cups flour
- 1 tbs high lard
- ½ tbs salt
- water
Sift flour and salt together. Cut in lard. Add water to make a very stiff dough.
Working on a sturdy table, beat the dough with a heavy mallet or axe head, about 30 minutes, or until bubbles form and pop when beaten. Form into small balls about the size of a golf-ball. Press each down lightly and poke with a fork. Bake at 400° for 30 minutes.
(Biscuit with smoked chicken gravy & crisped skin)