This Sweet Golden Item Was One Of Elvis' Family Favorites

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Much has been written about Elvis Presley's favorite foods, from his beloved peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwiches to his soft spot for the old-school Southern dessert, banana pudding. Yet one of his all-time favorite dishes is delectably simple: Southern-style biscuits.

Since Presley was from Tupelo, Mississippi, and a longtime Memphis resident, it's no surprise that he was so fond of biscuits. His family even had their own way of baking the fluffy staple, courtesy of his grandmother's recipe. Minnie May Hood Presley's buttermilk biscuits were featured in Pamela Clarke Keogh's 2004 biography, "Elvis Presley: The Man. The Life. The Legend." According to the book, Presley adored them so much that he "brought his grandmother to Germany just so she could bake them for him."

The family recipe calls for mostly pantry staples, like baking soda, sugar, and salt, along with self-rising flour, yeast, and buttermilk. Crisco or shortening gives the biscuits a rich, fatty flavor. If Presley didn't have any homemade biscuits on hand, odds were he had cans of biscuit dough in his fridge (at least six, according to "Fit for a King: The Elvis Presley Cookbook"), as monkey bread was a common late-night snack in his Graceland home.

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Big breakfasts were among the foods that Elvis Presley loved to eat, and you better believe biscuits were part of those morning spreads. According to his late former cook of 14 years, Mary Jenkins Langston, he started his day with scrambled eggs, scratch-made biscuits fried in butter, and sausage. "I'd bring the tray up to his room, he'd say, 'This is good, Mary.' He'd have butter running down his arms," she said in "The Burger and the King," a BBC documentary.

Presley had one greasy obsession that he always kept in the fridge: bacon. Langston confirmed that he'd sometimes have bacon for breakfast with biscuits and other typical morning foods. It takes a hearty appetite to kick off the day with Presley's usual fare, but his grandma's signature biscuits are a worthy component to a sit-down breakfast. Luckily, the Presley family's biscuit recipe is accessible for curious fans. For the full experience, eat them grilled in butter or paired with breakfast meats as Presley did, or enjoy them as a plain side.