From Our Kitchens: ‘Throwed rolls’ travel farther than flying biscuits

The new Flying Biscuit Cafe arrived with great fanfare in downtown Macon this week.  

 It offers Southern comfort food for breakfast, brunch and lunch at the corner of Second and Mulberry, where Michael’s on Mulberry and Between the Bread were once located.  

It’s hard to go wrong with “creamy, dreamy grits” as one of your signature dishes.

I was curious about the “flying” biscuits, though. They claim to be so fluffy and light that they “fly” off the plate, hence the name.

Do they really fly? Or do you have to order a side of wings? (OK, that was supposed to be a joke. Besides, they serve chicken tenders, not wings.)

The whimsical name reminded me of our many trips to Lambert’s Cafe in Missouri whenever we visit our Grisamore relatives. 

We have visited the famous “Home of the Throwed Rolls” in Sikeston and Ozark, Missouri.  We plan to go back to the Ozark location (about 12 miles south of Springfield) when we vacation in Branson next month. There is also a Lambert’s in Foley, Alabama. 

The first time my wife and I ate at the original Lambert’s in Sikeston was in the summer of 2010.  The crowd was already forming at 10:10 a.m., which is a little early for lunch, but we jumped in line anyway.

Lambert is not a “meat and two.’’ It’s a meat and two dozen, with all kinds of side offerings.

 Still, the main attraction is raising your hand and having one of the waiters who push around the carts with hot rolls dispatch one airborne from across the room.

It’s wildly entertaining to be there minding your fork and spoon with rolls buzzing above your head and whizzing past your ears. 

Lambert’s has been around since 1942, when the cafe was started in Sikeston by a couple named Earl and Agnes Lambert. Their son, Norman Lambert, a former high school football coach in Sikeston, is credited with starting the tradition of throwing rolls quite by accident.

 In an interview in Southeast Missourian magazine in 1981, Norman Lambert said he began the roll-throwing tradition in the late 1970s.  He was walking through the dining room, passing out hot rolls. It was so busy he couldn’t get around to everybody’s table, so the former coach channeled his inner quarterback.

“It was too crowded one noon for me to serve the rolls to a customer, and somebody yelled, ‘Throw em.’ So I threw them.’’ he told the magazine. “So, now I do that about every noon meal and during the evenings too. The rolls are fresh, right out of the oven.”

The wait staff has been winding up its arms ever since. 

Lambert’s begins baking rolls at 9:15 a.m. every morning and pulls the last one out of the oven at 9 p.m.  They serve more than 6,200 a day, although many of them do end up on the floor.

Last year, they sold an estimated 2.24 million. If every one of  those 5-inch rolls were baked side by side in a pan, it would stretch from Macon down Interstate 75 to the Florida state line.

Lambert’s is the ultimate food fight, only you don’t get to throw them back.  There is no need to wear a hard hat. Just be careful if you get caught in the crossfire.

I’m not sure the recipe is a secret, locked away in some vault under lock and key. This was published in the Cape Girardeau News-Guardian on Sunday, July 1, 1990. (Cape Girardeau is about 30 miles north of Sikeston and the hometown of the late Rush Limbaugh.)

This week’s “From Our Kitchens” might qualify as one where the story is better than the menu item. Bon “air” petit.

Lambert’s Cafe Throwed Rolls

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 package active dry yeast
• ¼ cup tepid water (105-110 degrees)
• 1 cup warm milk
• ¼ cup melted butter
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten (at room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

Combine sugar and yeast in tepid water. Let stand 5-10 minutes until yeast begins to foam.

Thoroughly mix milk, butter, sugar, egg and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the yeast mixture and 3 ½ cups of flour, adding a bit more if necessary to make a soft, pliable dough.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board and let it rest while you clean and butter the bowl. Knead dough 4-5 minutes, adding more flour if necessary, until dough is smooth and silky. Return to bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

Butter a 12-cup muffin pan.

Punch down the dough. Pinch off pieces about 1 ½ inches in diameter (enough to fill one-half of a muffin cup) and roll into smooth spheres. Place two such pieces in each prepared muffin cup. (It should be a tight fit.) Cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap for 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bake rolls 20-25 minutes or until light brown. Serve as soon as they are cool enough to throw. Makes 12 throwed rolls.