Mauricio and I both spent big chunks of our lives in the South, and as a result, we both developed a love for biscuits. People in the South are quick to say that their region has a monopoly on good biscuits, and while it’s not uncommon for folks to have a sort of regional pride about their local cuisine, there is one noticeable difference in this particular example of it: Northerners usually agree.

It's usually the simplest bread and pastries where aficionados claim that regional uniquities in the ingredients make all the difference. Some New Yorkers argue that the high-quality tap water in the city makes the best pizza and bagel doughs. Some Californians claim that San Francisco-style sourdough bread only tastes right when made with a sourdough starter developed from West Coast wild yeasts. And with biscuits, Southerners claim it’s the flour that makes all the difference.

In many cases, it can be hard to prove that one specific regional ingredient truly impacts the finished product to the extent that the true believers say. But with biscuits, there is one key difference in Southern flour which really does seem to explain why Southern biscuits are superior to those made elsewhere: soft winter wheats are more commonly grown in the south. Remember, soft wheats are classified as such based on the relative hardness of the wheat berries, and generally speaking, soft wheats have a lower gluten content.

One reason soft wheats are more common in the South is that the warm, humid climate is more agreeable to these varieties. Growing soft wheat has become the default for many Southern farmers, and the tradition of doing so has been passed down through the generations. Not all soft wheats are winter wheats, but winter wheats are also more common in the South where the mild winters allow farmers to plant wheat crops in the fall and overwinter them. Like soft wheats, winter wheats also have a lower gluten content compared to their spring counterparts. Soft winter wheats are essentially the lowest in gluten, and they make the best flour for biscuits.

When making biscuits, the goal is tenderness and flakiness. The biscuit dough needs to be worked enough to hold together, and some bakers even fold their biscuit dough several times to encourage distinct flaky layers. Despite this, it’s of vital importance that the gluten content of the flour remain unactivated. Activating the gluten content by overworking the dough results in dense, hard biscuits that closely resemble hocky pucks. When flour has a lower gluten content, gluten activation is less likely, and this makes all the difference for Southern biscuits.

When roller milled white flour replaced the neighborhood stone mills of the past, in a way Americans lost access to the variety of wheat types that used to grow across the country. Whether or not they realized it though is up for debate. In a time when people didn’t travel much and were more dependent on their land, the majority of the grain available to them was what would grow well in their region. Part of what made roller milled white flour so revolutionary is that it made transporting flour long distances possible without the risk of it turning rancid on a cross-country train ride. But when consumers overwhelmingly favored these new mass-produced, homogenized versions of flour for its convenience and predictability, they unknowingly dismantled most of the independent grain infrastructure in the country.

The convenience of this big-brand white flour quickly won consumers’ hearts. But with only a few flour companies responsible for essentially all of the domestic grain demand, farmers had to adjust their crops to the specifications required by the flour companies. There was no point in growing specialty grains when the local stone mill had stopped running and the only wheat berry customer that remained was a giant commercial roller-milling flour factory.

Still, there were some relics of regionality that survived the mass extinction, and one was a brand of flour called White Lily. Established in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1883, White Lily processed exclusively soft red winter wheat, unlike the hard wheats processed by the other big roller-mill flour companies. This soft winter wheat flour was ideal for more delicate applications, like cakes, muffins, and cookies. Generations of Southerners swear by this brand, especially for making biscuits. Considering that White Lily is primarily available in the South and hard to find elsewhere, this access to lower gluten flour has historically given Southerners a unique advantage in the biscuit scene.

Now, in the United States, our access to flour is changing again. A new wave of independent farmers are growing more varieties of wheat on their farms. Some are ancient varieties that were almost lost, and others are more modern breeds that were developed to withstand the challenging weather patterns of a changing climate. Passionate new millers are establishing new stone mills, making these locally grown wheats available as freshly-milled flour to their local communities. And, tabletop stone mills even allow home bakers to mill their own flour. Climate-controlled delivery trucks have largely replaced trains, making the transport of grain and flour faster and less risky. All of these changes have upended the reliance we had on a handful of commercial flour brands only a few decades ago. Let’s take advantage of it!

If you live in the South and want to experiment with White Lily flour, go for it! But, do it with an experimental mindset and as a way to connect with generations of Southern bakers. We expect you’ll discover that full-inclusion, stone-milled soft winter wheat flours are always going to be more flavorful and perform just as well in any tender bake. You can have tender biscuits either way, but choosing full-inclusion means your flour will deliver flavor as well as texture.

This week’s recipe is for Strawberry and French Thyme Scones. It calls for a soft winter wheat, and in our bakery we make this recipe with full-inclusion flour that we mill ourselves. The scone is the culinary cousin of the biscuit: tender, flaky, buttery, and delicious. They’re mixed quickly by hand and are charmingly simple. Chunks of strawberries melt into jammy pockets in the oven, and the homemade French thyme sugar adds a lovely floral note for all the flavors of spring in one bite. Let’s get baking!