A basket of biscuits hot from the oven

The ubiquitous mating of a crusty loaf with soups and stews can get wearisome when you crave something tender, warm, and delicious slathered with butter. If that's the case for the Thanksgiving table, it's time to make biscuits.

One of the quickest ways to have a tray full of small breads ready to pile into a basket is to become an accomplished quick-bread baker. The diminutive version, just a simple side-step from lightly sweetened and spiced breads like applesauce cake and pumpkin bread, is the dinner biscuit, ideal for turkey and trimmings.

Make biscuits by mixing fat into flour and binding the mixture with whole milk or buttermilk (or sour cream or yogurt, both used for their tang). The resulting dough is moist. But the defining element is the range of additions that distinguish the dough and lend it a gorgeous aroma and texture -- kernels of corn, generous snippets of scallion, bits of roasted garlic or shallot, slivers of sauteed green and red pepper, shredded cheese, a medley of herbs, a spoonful of ground spice.

With biscuits, salted butter is the ideal. It is simply the most tantalizing of all spreads and its tangy, creamy essence sinks into the flaky highs and lows of these little lush breads. When the biscuits emerge from the oven, and no one's looking, lift a warm square right from the baking sheet, split it open, and top it with butter. Who needs turkey, stuffing, and gravy? -- LISA YOCKELSON