Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl.

Grate butter into the flour mixture.

Rub grated butter into dry ingredients using your fingertips until the mixture resembles crumbs.*

Add chilled buttermilk to the mixture and stir until the dough comes together.

The dough will be sticky.

Turn dough onto a floured surface, dust top with flour, and gently flatten and then fold the dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. A bench scraper works great for this. If you don’t have one, use the side of a metal spatula.

Flatten the dough one final time and cut it into 1-inch-thick rounds.

Cut biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, pushing straight down through the dough.

Place biscuits on a baking sheet so that they just almost touch.

24 biscuits will fit on a half-size sheet pan.

Reform scrap dough, work it as little as possible, and continue cutting. Biscuits from the scraps might not rise as high as those from the first cutting.

The whole process should be done quickly to keep the butter cold.**

Bake until the biscuits are tall and light gold on top. I bake them for 11 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake for 4-6 minutes. Time may vary based on your oven.