Sift all of the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. With a knife cut the butter into small pieces ¼ inch by ¼ approximately. And put into the bowl. Take a moment and toss the butter gently with your hands in the flour mixture making sure that each piece of butter gets coated. Take the Crisco and using your fingers pinch of similar sized pieces. And then toss those in the flour as well. Tossing in the flour will help keep the butter from clumping up, which will help create even light fluffy layers. Then using a half moon butter cutter try cutting the butter and Crisco into even smaller pieces. Do not overwork the dough or allow it to sit too long. You need to keep the butter cold.

Pour the milk into the bowl. Stir with a large wooden spoon until just combined then turn out onto a floured surface. Using your hands form the dough into a rectangle that is about 2 inches tall. You can cut into square biscuits with a knife or you can use a round cutter. Brush the tops of the biscuits with the milk and sprinkle with the raw sugar. Place biscuits on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

At this point, you can put into a preheated 425-degree oven and bake until golden brown. Which can take 8-12 minutes. However, what I like to do is to refrigerate the cut biscuits for at least 30 minutes or as long as 24 hours. You will find that taking this extra step will result in a lighter biscuit. This happens because colder butter takes longer to heat and will release its steam, which is what fuels the process of rising. The warmer the butter the more it just melts without releasing the steam created.