Butter is Love and Biscuits Are a Hug: A Love Letter From the South

By Deb North

Full disclosure, I was handed this assignment with absolutely no working knowledge of baking science or the biscuit-eating culture—basically no idea of consuming biscuits of any kind, color, or creed. Growing up in North Chicago, we kiddos were raised on cookies and cold milk, not warm biscuits and gravy. The first time I heard “good gravy” I was standing in a Piggly Wiggly parking lot after we moved to Atlanta. “Mind your own biscuits” was another term that sailed straight over my head. 

On the steely north side, traditional Italian sesame cookies, also known as biscotti reginelle or Queen’s Cookies, are elevated to royalty. Sesame cookies show up at weddings, funerals, baptisms, and really any Sunday gathering (think football). Our Southern neighbors share this sense of family and food, but they express it through something more tender and far more buttery.

American chef and TV icon Julia Child said it best: “With enough butter, anything is good.” Butter is the universal food love language; the ingredient that bridges north and south, east and west, old world and new.

But if butter is love, biscuits are the vessel.

The modern American biscuit evolved from what was once a simple bread or cake, tracing the origins of one of America’s most iconic baked goods back to Europe. The word biscuit comes from the Latin panis biscotus, meaning “twice-cooked bread”—a Roman invention designed to endure travel and time. Hard, dry, tasteless, and entirely utilitarian.

The ole-timey biscuit is the emotional opposite of the tender Southern biscuit we know and love today.

What changed? Butter. Creative and resourceful, Southerners transformed the humble biscuit into something transcendent, soft, and layered that breathes relief when broken open to a warm exhale of steam and promise.

And if you ask Southern food scientist guru Alton Brown, they’re also rock and roll: “Making biscuits is like playing rock music. All you need is three chords and a lot of volume.” Translation: keep it simple, make it loud, and if need be, make a mess.

Meet the Hands and Hearts Behind the Biscuit

Because butter is love and biscuits are a hug, the people who make them are naturally the poets of the kitchen; the ones who acknowledge that biscuit making is equal parts art and science, and understand tenderness is also a skill one must possess. Here are the biscuit whisperers shaping the foodie scene, sharing key takeaways of the South’s most beloved bites.

Scott Peacock

James Beard Award–winning chef Scott Peacock presents his Black Belt Biscuit Experience at Reverie, his 1858 Greek Revival mansion in Marion, Alabama. There, he hosts small groups of “biscuiteers” for immersive four- to five-hour workshops that are part culinary class, part cultural preservation—and part prayer.

Chef Scott’s biscuits are rooted in history and hospitality. He tells stories as he bakes, weaving memory into method. A devoted purist, Scott approaches biscuit-making as an offering—an act of presence, reverence, and care in the moment.

He cites five foundational ingredients of his blessed biscuits: heirloom flours—specifically Red May and White Lammas from Anson Mills—homemade baking powder, high-quality coarse chunks of cold, unsalted Kerrygold butter, Diamond Crystal kosher salt, and full-fat whole-milk buttermilk.

Scott’s technique is gentle, almost meditative. Light hands make for quick work with cold fat; he avoids overworking the dough to ensure tall, tender biscuits. He uses a Hades-hot oven with a temperature of precisely 501 degrees Fahrenheit to seal the deal. Biscuiteers revel in the multisensory result, eating with their eyes first: scanning the light golden dome and mahogany edges; smelling the sweet aroma filling the kitchen; and tasting their first buttery bite melting on the tongue. There is calmness in knowing this moment will never BE again, affirms Scott. He’s clearly in the state of flow.

Lauren Furey

The story shifts to private chef Lauren Furey, host of Now We’re Cookin’ on SCETV. Lauren learned biscuit-making from her late mentor and dear friend, Nathalie Dupree, who taught her the value of using a food processor for light mixing—a small but effective technique that helps prevent overworking the dough. Lauren’s signature twist is the addition of a little cornmeal for texture and a touch of sugar for sweetness. “Sugar and cornmeal are one happy combination,” she says.

Chef Lauren’s philosophy reads like poetry: “Always bake your biscuits so they are touching. Because, like people, biscuits rise best together.” She personally loves her biscuits filled with something creamy, goat or pimento cheese being a favorite.

Virginia Willis

Georgia-born cookbook author and culinary truth-teller Virginia Willis brings gospel-level technique to the buttermilk biscuit conversation. She too warns against overworking the dough, explaining that too much handling activates gluten and produces tough, heavy biscuits. Her commandments: ice-cold hands, coarse butter chunks, gentle handling, and a blazing-hot oven—typically 450°F to 500°F.

Why cold butter? Because the pea-sized chunks of buttery love melt in the oven, creating steam pockets that form flaky layers and impart flavorful bursts. Her mentor, also Natalie Dupree, once candidly told her: “Get your hot little hands off that dough.” Virginia listened.

Carrie Morey

If you want to save time and still serve something divine, Charleston’s Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit delivers like a Southern shortcut with a soul. Founded in 2005 by Carrie Morey, the brand grew from her mother’s recipe and the motto: ‘We make ‘em, you bake ‘em.’ Twenty years later, Callie’s is a Southern staple with a national retail presence, grab-and-go shops, a cult following, and a culinary docuseries How She Rolls, all about biscuits, business, and work/life balance.

Carrie insists there are no secrets. She uses her fast hands for greater control and always makes more dough than needed. “My feeling is, if you’re going to make a mess, you may as well make the most of it!” Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit flavor profiles lean Southern and make any home smell heavenly, offering plain buttermilk, cinnamon, cheese & chive, sharp cheddar, country ham, sausage, and traditional pimento cheese options.

Ashleigh Page

Over at Page’s Okra Grill, owner Ashleigh Page breaks biscuit making into four truths: frozen grated butter, shaggy dough, lamination, and an egg wash. Page’s is known for buttermilk and cathead biscuits, named because they are as big as a cat’s head. Folklore or not, these are not your average biscuits. Need proof? Check out our cover photo.

Take, for instance, the legendary—and colossal— TJ’s Hot Mess sandwich. “TJ Phillips sat at the breakfast counter most mornings after hosting his radio show. Quickly becoming friends, TJ was craving a fried chicken biscuit, and we started stacking the rest on top. Voila—one of our best-selling biscuits. Of course, we had to name it TJ’s Hot Mess!” recalls Ashleigh. 

TJ’s Hot Mess is a tower of Southern fried chicken served on a buttermilk biscuit topped with scrambled eggs, pepperjack cheese, jalapenos, and smothered in country sausage gravy. “Since its debut, TJ’s Hot Mess has become one of Page’s most iconic breakfast dishes—comforting, unapologetically indulgent and unforgettable,” says Courtney. “TJ helped create something special: a biscuit that brings people together, makes them smile, and keeps his spirit alive on our menu every single day.” Like a little heat? Page’s also does a hot honey version on a cathead biscuit that’s worth checking out. 

Biscuit Love for Everyone

Ultimately, biscuits are a Southern love letter written in flour and fat: they hold blessings, stories, memories, and more. North to south, east to west, biscuits in their buttery glory appeal to all tastes: salty, savory, sweet, spicy. They can be standalone, filled, or sandwiched. 

At the center of it all is butter, pausing and melting with you in every flaky layer. No matter how you’re enjoying them, you can’t go wrong in our opinion. As John Wayne would say on his way out the door: “Slap some bacon on a biscuit and let’s go! We’re burnin’ daylight!”

National Buttermilk Biscuit Day is celebrated annually on May 14, honoring the classic Southern staple, perfect for enjoying with more butter, gravy, jam, ham, or as part of a beautiful mess of a sandwich.

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