Food is one of the great unifiers every person will experience in their lifetimes.

Is broccoli something that should be incinerated rather than eaten? Does pineapple belong on a pizza? Why did my grandfather like eating a pickle with a slice of chocolate cake? Food is something every person has an opinion on and it’s something that we can all talk about. After all, we all have our own opinions on, say, where the best pizza in Wyoming is (P6 Station in Thermopolis, though I will accept any arguments for Grand Avenue Pizza in Laramie despite the fact it closed several years ago.)

Good food warms the soul, so why not share some Wyoming recipes? This week, we’re bringing you Gray Biscuits.

Gray Biscuits

One of my favorite things to read are recipes that have an interesting story behind them. Not in an online blog post bordering on the size of a novella that goes into the author’s life with a fine-tooth comb sort of way, but a food that has a peculiar name and how it was given that name. That’s what we’re getting with these biscuits.

This recipe comes from the Wyoming cookbook “Black Tie and Boots: Timeless Traditions from the New West.” This book was published 20 years ago by the University of Wyoming as a fundraiser for the university libraries. I was a student at UW when it was published, but didn’t buy it until a few years after I graduated when I found a copy on clearance at the UW bookstore. Several recipes in this book have become staples in my cooking repertoire, including these biscuits.

According to the book, this recipe originated in a 1930s logging camp. An undergraduate studying animal science at UW would make these biscuits for student gatherings during the 1990s, where it became a regularly requested staple. As for the name, the camp cook wouldn’t always wash their hands prior to making the biscuits, which would give them their gray hue. Gray or golden brown, these delightful biscuits are worth the effort.

What you’ll need:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 4 rounded tablespoons of butter-flavored shortening
• 1 cup of milk
• Butter

To start, preheat your oven to 500 degrees, then sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Cut the shortening into the flour mixture with a pastry blender until crumbly, then stir in the milk until it combines into a dough. Place the dough onto a lightly floured surface and pat the dough into about a 1 1/2 inch thickness, then cut with a biscuit cutter and place onto a greased baking dish. Dot with butter and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown (Mine get golden brown at about 13 minutes, so it’s a good idea to check on them a few minutes before the 15-minute bake time is up.) This recipe makes nine biscuits.