I made these in a dutch oven over an open camp fire. They were light and flaky; delicious with pear butter.

This recipe calls for buttermilk and for the best results you should use buttermilk! That being said, there are several alternatives that you can try if you don't have buttermilk...however, your results my vary (some may be acceptable, some may not):

1.) For emergencies I keep a container of powdered buttermilk on hand. It's is a good alternative, easy to use (just follow the directions on the packaging to substitute reconstituted dry for fresh buttermilk), has all the flavor and produces the right texture as well. It can be found in the baking section of most supermarkets.

2.) When my maternal grandmother ran out of buttermilk she would replace part or all of it with whole milk. She told me that “sweet” milk (regular whole milk) would do in a pinch. I disagree with her on this. While this substitution might be OK in some recipes...it definitely isn't in others! It depends on the function of the buttermilk in the recipe. In this biscuit recipe, and any other quick bread recipe that uses buttermilk, the buttermilk is an essential part of the leavening process. To replace the buttermilk in this recipe with regular milk and ensure that the proper proportions of acid and alkali needed for leavening are maintained you will also need to eliminate the 1/2-tsp. of baking soda and increase the baking powder by another 1 1/2- to 2-tsp.

3.) You can also try clabbering or souring milk to use in the place of buttermilk. Regular milk can be soured with an acidic ingredient such as lemon juice, vinegar, or cream of tartar. The acid in these ingredients will react with baking soda to produce leavening and will approximate the tang of buttermilk in most baked goods. For 1 cup of sour milk, place 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar in a liquid measuring cup then add enough warmed regular milk to bring the liquid up to the one-cup line and allow it to sit for 10 to 15 minutes. This milk will be similar to buttermilk in sourness and acid content, but will lack buttermilk's distinctive taste and thickness.

4.) If you have plain whole-milk yogurt on hand, you can thin some of it with a little regular milk to use as a buttermilk substitute. For 1 cup, combine 3/4 cup of yogurt with 1/4 cup of milk and mix well. Yogurt-based baked goods are usually less tangy than the buttermilk versions but may make for an acceptable substitution.

Anyway, I recommend using buttermilk rather than the substitutions if you can. Besides it's distinctive tangy flavor, buttermilk has many other features useful to those who love to bake. It aids in the rising of many types of bread and has a natural tenderizing effect on dough. Buttermilk helps baked goods brown evenly and it also extends the freshness of baked goods.

If I dont have buttermilk, can I use normal milk instead?

Nice and flaky. I used half margarine and half crisco. The addition of sugar is nice!

Resist the urge to add more flour to the dough -- the wetter the dough, the less the handling, the more tender the biscuit.

[I posted this recipe.]