The public-radio variety showA Prairie Home Companionwelcomesa new hostthis weekend, no longer under the care of its originator, Garrison Keillor. And many people—at the very least, many members of my extended family—will be listening to see how things are different under the new guy, the 35-year-old mandolinist Chris Thile.Speaking to the New York Times Magazine recently,Thile suggested that audiences should expect some changes. So we might be bidding farewell to, among other things,the Powdermilk Biscuits song.
Powdermilk Biscuits was the most prominent "sponsor" ofPrairie Home Companion;every week Keillor sang a jingle on behalf of the fictitious company. He was inspired to createPHCin the 1970s after the New Yorker sent him to Nashville to write about the Grand Ole Opry, another radio variety show. The Opry was at that time leaving its original home at the Ryman Auditorium in favor of roomier digs at the edge of the city.
Powdermilk Biscuits and other fake sponsors, like the American Duct Tape Council, were Keillor's tribute to the musical jingles that served as advertising on the kind of old-timey radio shows he was trying to emulate—particularly the Opry's longtime sponsor Martha White, a Tennessee maker of flour, cornmeal, and baking mixes. The Martha White jingle specifically promoted Martha White'sself-rising flour("the one all-purpose flour!"), which had a secret ingredient called Hot Rize. The song was performed by the bluegrass legends Flatt and Scruggs and covered later by, among others, the bluegrass band Hot Rize—who had named themselves in honor of Martha White.
Unlike Powdermilk Biscuits, Martha White is a real product that you were always able to get at the store—and still can. But while she'd work great in this (appropriately Southern) recipe for chicken and biscuits, any old self-rising flour will do. Between that and thepurchased rotisserie chicken, the dish comes together quickly. Or, can I put that another way?Heavens, it's tasty—and expeditious.
