Talking about biscuits can get downright sensual.

They’re warm, flaky, steamy, soft, rounded, fragrant, buttery and immensely satisfying.

Basically, they are everything you could ever want in a breakfast bread, a luncheon carbohydrate or even a dinner roll. They are fun to make, as well, and not too hard.

The best part, though, is smelling them as they cook, with the anticipation of biting into them when they are still warm enough to melt butter and soak up jam or honey.

Recently, I made dozens of biscuits in an assortment of styles, sizes and textures. This experience has given me insight into certain biscuit facts:

• As with pie crusts and bread, the more you work a biscuit dough the tougher the results will be. The dry and wet ingredients in biscuits are always mixed just until they come together to form a ball.

• Biscuits are leavened with baking powder or both baking powder and baking soda. They are never made with yeast. But, as with all good rules, there is an exception: Angel biscuits are made with baking powder, baking soda and yeast.

• Self-rising flour, which is essential in many Southern biscuit recipes, is flour with baking powder mixed into it, along with a couple of phosphates.

• In the South, biscuits are usually made with White Lily brand flour, which is made from soft winter wheat. Winter wheat has less protein than spring wheat, which means baked goods made from it are softer and lighter than those made from other brands.

• Shirley O. Corriher, a native Georgian who is something of a legend in the culinary world, has devised a clever workaround for people who want Southern biscuits

but can’t find White Lily self-rising flour: Mix together a national brand of self-rising flour with cake flour (which has very low protein) and add some baking soda.

• Biscuits have more calories than you think. I’m sorry, but it can’t be helped. That’s why they taste so good.

Here are the biscuits I made:

Buttermilk biscuits

These rose the highest of all the biscuits I made. Why? Buttermilk is fairly acidic and, when mixed with the small amount of baking soda in the dough, it reacts the same way baking soda reacts when mixed with vinegar: It bubbles. The bubbles create tiny air pockets, which make the biscuits rise.

Buttermilk also happens to have just the right taste for biscuits. That slight tang gives them a flavorful warmth and hominess that biscuit-lovers crave.

Fabulous biscuits

The name sounds a bit too much like shameless self-promotion, right? And in fact, the biscuits themselves are kind of ordinary. But just before baking, you dip every piece of dough all the way into melted butter. As a result, the cooked biscuits are the most buttery things ever. And that makes them fabulous.

Touch of Grace biscuits

“Touch of heaven” might be a better name. These lightly sweet Southern specialties are impossibly light and delicately flavored. You don’t reach for them on the platter as much as grab them as they float up to the ceiling.

Cream biscuits

These are classics. If you close your eyes and picture a biscuit, this is probably what you see. The cream makes them rich and a little decadent. They are also the fastest and easiest to make of the bunch.

Angel biscuits

These are the ones that have yeast in them, along with baking powder and baking soda. Not surprisingly, they rise especially well. Mild and pleasantly flavored, they are hearty and satisfying despite being as light as an angel’s wings.