Cut butter in chunks or shortening and put in a large bowl with flour. With your pastry blender, blend butter into the flour.
Add buttermilk or milk, baking powder, sugar, and salt to flour mixture. Fold in the wet ingredients until dough is moist.
Flour your countertop and rolling pin. Roll out your dough to about a half to one inch thick. The thicker the dough, the higher the biscuit will rise when cooked. But you will have fewer biscuits the thicker you make them.
Use a glass cup as a dough cutter to make your biscuit rounds.
To bake fresh, place on a greased baking sheet. Place biscuits so they are touching one another on the sheet. Cook in the oven at 450°F or 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.
To freeze, place each biscuit on a cookie sheet and immediately put in freezer. Leave in freezer for about 30 minutes or until biscuits are thoughly frozen. When frozen remove from baking sheet and put in ziploc freezer baggy.