375 GR flour
2 TBS baking powder
⅜ TSP baking soda
½ TSP salt (1 TSP if using shortening)
3 TBS butter
3 TBS bacon fat or shortening
12 OZ buttermilk, chilled
Oven: 450°
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and bacon or shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don’t want the fats to melt.) Make a well in the center and pour in ~ 6oz of the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky. Add more of the chilled buttermilk if it seems too dry.
Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 3/4″ thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2½” hexagonal cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they almost touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. (Biscuits from the second pass will not be quite as light as those from the first, but hey, that’s life). Brush tops lightly with buttermilk.
Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes. Yields ~12 biscuits.