Scratch Biscuits Is Reworking Their Biscuits


Kentucky Klassic from Scratch Biscuits at the Headhouse Farmers' Market.

No, this is good news. This is responsiveness and trouble-shooting. Though I wish it’d happened sooner, this is Mitch Prensky and his crew getting the message that their biscuit sandwiches at Scratch were pretty much impossible to eat without the biscuits crumbling to pieces, and attempting to do something about it.

Read on…

Last night, Mitch Prensky turned to Instagram (which just seems to be our #1 news source these past few days…) to answer some of the critics who’ve been complaining about his namesake product at the 5-week-old Scratch Biscuits shop at 13th and Chestnut. He said, in part:

“Since we opened our little biscuit shop 5 weeks ago we have been getting a ton of feedback (both good and bad) about the biscuits. Most of the latter critique centers on the structure of the biscuit and its ability to remain a properly sturdy vehicle for the ingredients inside. So, this is what we’ve done… We now bake a biscuit for sandwiches with more structure and another for eating on its own or with a spread.”

And this, as I said above, is a good thing. Because he isn’t the only one whose been hearing complaints about the product. From trusted mouths, I’ve heard time and again how the biscuits at Scratch are hard (bordering on impossible) to eat, mostly because they fall apart almost immediately in the transit between plate and mouth. Individually, the ingredients seem to be pretty good. But its tough to judge the entire sandwich when you’re reduced to eating it with a spoon.

As for me, I’ve had them in a couple of different iterations. And while one of them (filled with mostly dry ingredients like, you know, ham) held together fairly well, I had the same problem with the others that everyone else has been having. Thus, it was tough for me to recommend the place to anyone–which is a sad thing to say when we’re talking about pimento cheese, pulled pork, Benton’s ham, fried chicken and, you know, biscuits, which all number among my favorite things on earth.

Anyway, you can read Prensky’s full explanation at the link below. And I’ll certainly be headed back to Scratch soon to see whether or not the alterations to the recipe make the necessary difference between an actual biscuit sandwich and a lap full of fried chicken, cabbage slaw and biscuit shrapnel.

Mitch Prensky [Instagram]