
Southern biscuits are more than just a side dish on menus in the South. They are a culinary staple that hold a special place in the hearts of diners and chefs alike.
These fluffy, buttery creations have a way of bringing people together and creating a sense of home and comfort.
On restaurant and foodservice menus in the South, homestyle southern biscuits are often featured in a variety of ways. They can be served as a side dish alongside fried chicken or barbecue, or as the star of the show in a biscuit sandwich filled with crispy bacon, eggs, and cheese.
Some establishments even offer biscuits as a dessert, topped with sweet honey butter or served with a side of jam or preserves.
The popularity of southern biscuits on menus can be attributed to their versatility and ability to complement a wide range of dishes. They can be dressed up or down, depending on the occasion, and can be enjoyed at any time of day.
But it’s not just the taste and texture of southern biscuits that make them so beloved – it’s also the sense of tradition and heritage that they represent.
When diners see a biscuit on a menu, they are transported back to fond memories of family gatherings and Sunday suppers, where the table was always set with a basket of freshly baked biscuits.
For chefs and restaurant owners, including southern biscuits on their menus is a way to connect with their patrons on a deeper level.
It shows that they understand and appreciate the rich culinary history of the South, and are committed to honoring and preserving that heritage. It also sets them apart from other establishments, as diners are always on the lookout for authentic and delicious southern fare.
Any chef who’s ever made homestyle southern biscuits – rich, delicate, and pillowy soft – knows White Lily.
A Southern staple for nearly two centuries, the brand continues to offer unrivaled excellence in winter wheat flours.
Marketing VP Brent Minner shares some of the brand’s colorful history, flour best practices, and how the company is expanding into new markets.
White Lily has long been a crown jewel in the classic Southern baking tradition. Founded in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1883, the brand is renowned for their expertly refined portfolio of soft red winter wheat flours.
With a lower protein content than hard winter wheat, or other wheat varieties, the flour lends itself well to the baking of more delicate Southern delicacies, like cakes and biscuits.
Nearly 150 years after its founding, White Lily continues to promise the highest quality flour milled from 100% soft winter wheat, and is trusted by a range of Americans, from the veteran five-star chef to the humble home baker.
The brand’s flour, itself, has an interesting story. Sourced from domestic wheat grown in the southern United States and the Ohio Valley, it’s milled only from soft red winter wheat, which requires a temperate climate to grow.
In milder conditions, the red wheat berry needn’t produce as much protein. In colder conditions, higher protein content helps the berry to better withstand cold snaps and prolonged freezes, but results in a coarser flour better suited to breads when harvested and milled.
White Lily has used the same technique in producing its flour since the brand’s inception and offers a quality and reliability that its customers cherish.
As a result, the brand is easy to market, remarked Minner: “It’s rare to have a product like this, where the story really tells itself.”
It’s a pantry staple and a well-kept Southern baking secret, and while “each chef or baker experiences [the flour] differently, the thing that reigns true is that it’s a trusted ingredient in the kitchen that they’ve been using for years and has been passed down from generation to generation.”

As a result of its long-time use in Southern kitchens, many chefs have developed generations-old recipes for biscuits that rely on White Lily flour to be perfect.
“In general,” Minner explained, “biscuit makers have their own ways of doing it – there’s no right way, just your way.” Many chefs, as a result, refuse to even consider the possibility of using another brand.
Therefore, White Lily must ensure that every batch of flour offers the same high and reliable quality to its customers.
“It’s our responsibility to make sure we’re providing these chefs with exactly what they expect, and so we perform frequent and stringent quality checks and seek constant feedback from our customers about their experience with the flour,” Minner added. The brand, clearly, takes their quality and tradition very seriously.
In recent decades, though, White Lily has branched out from offering solely soft winter wheat-based products, and diversified its product portfolio. Most notably, the brand offers a range of cornmeal flours and mixes.
While cornbread is less regionally diverse than the Southern biscuit, the majority of its consumption comes from the same region. As such, it seemed fitting for the company, whose ideal customer is based in the South, to expand their offering of traditional Southern baking supplies into the cornmeal market.
True to their tradition, though, White Lily mixes their cornmeals with a smaller portion of soft winter wheat flour, to give cornbreads made from the mixes a distinct soft and pillowy texture akin to a biscuit.
The brand also offers a range of pre-proportioned baking mixes, including brownies and poundcakes, for larger, scaled-up operations, like catering businesses or university cafeterias, which serve more people.
“We actually work with a lot of customers that start off as one-or-two location operations, and then expand into multi-unit operations, and their needs change over time,” Minner outlined.
Another more recent addition to the brand’s portfolio is a line of bread flour, which, unlike the majority of its other products, is not made from soft winter wheat flour.
Nevertheless, Minner attested that its quality is on par with the renowned winter wheat products White Lily has to offer: “We’re offering something different, something that an operator can turn to and expect the same quality.”
While pizzas and flatbreads make their way onto more and more menus across the country, the company’s focus remains on what it does best: “100% soft winter wheat flour will always be at the core of the White Lily brand identity, but we won’t ever turn away opportunities in other food types if we think that we can offer the same quality in another line of flour,” Minner shared.
White Lily has been – and undoubtedly still is – among the most trusted brands for Southern bakers.
Offering unfaltering quality since 1883, the brand continues to offer stellar soft winter wheat products – ideal for the perfect biscuit – while venturing into other primarily Southern cuisine-oriented ingredient markets.
Even as the company wades through the uncertain waters of inflation and economic instability, it’s clear that the White Lily brand will remain a Southern staple for 150 more years to come.
For more information about the brand’s products, visit White Lily’s website.