Since I never use a recipe I just go with tossing things together but will try to make sense of how to make the biscuits, though. You do have to be willing just to put your hands right in the dough and work it up. Keep the one hand clean while working up the biscuits since you will need to be able to add water and don't want to get dough all over your faucet. There's no way getting around this and the drop biscuits that are just stirred with a spoon aren't the old time southern biscuits, not sure what they are or who come up with the recipe.
I use the Bisquick now to make biscuit since I'm not able to use up the shortening before it gets strong and the Bisquick has everything in it you need other than the buttermilk.
I just dumped out the amount of Bisquick for how many biscuits I want to make in a big mixing bowl. The bowl I use will hold around two quarts just guessing it does. I put the bowl almost full of Bisquick, and then I add a couple cups of buttermilk. Then I add water until the dough is pretty wet, then keep adding Bisquick working it in to the batter until the batter is no longer sticky. Once the batter can be worked up in to a big ball and not sticky, I put it on the cutting board and just pat it out until its about one half inches thick, No need for a rolling pin its just something to be in the way and another item having to be cleaned up later.
The biscuit cutters they sell are way too small, so I use a round left over container to cut the biscuits out, but a glass will do just as well to make good size biscuits.
If the dough is too sticky to cut the biscuits out the dough needs to be put back in the bowl to add a little more Bisquick so you can cut out the biscuits. You want the dough to be moist, but you want it where you can cut out the biscuits too. You will soon get the feel of how the dough should be once you have made biscuits a few times.
Once the biscuit dough can be cut out and its not too sticky cut the biscuits out, you usually will have enough left once you have cut the biscuits out for maybe one more biscuits, so just pat it out in the shape of a biscuit.
Put biscuits on a cookie sheet and they are ready to bake at 450 for around twenty minutes but watch for them to get a golden brown then take them out, because ovens vary in the time it takes to bake biscuits, some take longer, and some may take less time.
While the biscuits are baking is a good time to clean up the mess.
