Biscuit Conditional

A biscuit is a flour-based baked food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers.

Types of biscuit include biscotti, sandwich biscuits (such as custard creams), digestive biscuits, ginger biscuits, shortbread biscuits, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate-coated marshmallow treats, Anzac biscuits, and speculaas.

The term "biscuit" is used in many English-speaking countries including Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa. In the United States and parts of Canada, sweet biscuits are nearly always called "cookies" and savoury biscuits are called "crackers", while the term ''biscuit'' is used for a soft, leavened quick bread similar to a savoury version of a ''scone''.

Variations in meaning of ''biscuit''

The word ''biscuit'' is used to refer to a broad range of primarily flour-based foods.
* In most of the English-speaking world, a "biscuit" is a small, hard, baked product that would be called either a "cookie" or a " cracker" in the United States and sometimes in Canada. "Biscuits" in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and Ireland are usually hard and may be savoury or sweet, such as chocolate biscuits, digestives, hobnobs, ginger nuts, rich tea, shortbread, bourbons, and custard creams. The term ''cookie'' typically refers to only one type of biscuit (the sweeter baked dough typically containing chocolate chips or raisins); however, it may also locally refer to specific types of biscuits or breads.
* In the United States and some parts of Canada, a "biscuit" is a quick bread, somewhat similar to an unsweetened scone, but with a texture more "fluffy and flaky" vs. "sturdy and crumbly". Common varieties include baking powder biscuits and buttermilk biscuits. A Southern regional variation, the '' beaten biscuit'' (or in New England ''sea biscuit'') is closer to hardtack than soft dough biscuits.
* Canadians use the term ''biscuit'' in both senses, although ''cookie'' is the more common term for a sweet biscuit. The North American style biscuit is sometimes referred to as a "tea biscuit" to distinguish it from the other type. The ''Canadian Oxford Dictionary'' describes each word in reference to the other; "biscuit" can mean "Brit. a cookie", whilst "cookie" can mean "N. Amer. a small sweet biscuit".

In general, the British, Australians, South Africans, New Zealanders, Indians, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, Singaporeans, Nigerians, Kenyans, and Irish use the British meaning of "biscuit" for the sweet biscuit. The terms ''biscuit'' and ''cookie'' are used interchangeably, depending on the region and the speaker, with ''biscuits'' usually referring to hard, sweet biscuits (such as digestives, Nice, Bourbon creams, etc.) and ''cookies'' often specifically for chocolate chip cookies. The British meaning is at the root of the name of the United States' most prominent maker of cookies and crackers, the National Biscuit Company, now called Nabisco.
File:Wheat biscuit.jpg, Wheat and cream biscuits (northern England)
File:Flickr stuart spivack 8254492--Beaten biscuits.jpg, Beaten biscuits (southern US)

Etymology

Modern-day differences in the use of the word ''biscuit'' are described by British cookery writer Elizabeth David in '' English Bread and Yeast Cookery''. She writes

It is interesting that these soft biscuits (such as scones) are common to Scotland and Guernsey, and that the term ''biscuit'' as applied to a soft product was retained in these places, and in America, whereas in England it has completely died out.

The Old French's use of "Twice-sod simplicity! ''Bis coctus!''" in ''Love's Labour's Lost''. () This is because biscuits were originally cooked in a twofold process: first baked, and then dried out in a slow oven. This term was then adapted into English in the 14th century during the Middle Ages, in the Middle English word , to represent a hard, twice-baked product (see the German Zwieback). It finally evolved into ''biscuit'' to follow the modern French spelling. The Dutch language from around 1703 had adopted the word ('little cake') to have a similar meaning for a similar hard, baked product.

When continental Europeans began to emigrate to colonial North America, the two words and their "same but different" meanings began to clash. The words ''cookie'' or ''cracker'' became the words of choice to mean a hard, baked product. Further confusion has been added by the adoption of the word biscuit for a small leavened bread popular in the United States. According to the American English dictionary Merriam-Webster, a cookie is a "small flat or slightly raised cake". A biscuit is "any of various hard or crisp dry baked product" similar to the American English terms ''cracker'' or ''cookie'', or "a small quick bread made from dough that has been rolled out and cut or dropped from a spoon".

In a number of other European languages, terms derived from the Latin refer instead to yet another baked product, similar to the sponge cake; e.g. Spanish , German , Russian (), and Polish .

In modern Italian usage, the term is used to refer to any type of hard twice-baked biscuit, and not only to the as in English-speaking countries; it is the same for the modern French term .

History

Biscuits for travel

The need for nutritious, easy-to-store, easy-to-carry, and long-lasting foods on long journeys, in particular at sea, was initially solved by taking livestock along with a butcher/cook. However, this took up additional space on what were either horse-powered treks or small ships, reducing the time of travel before additional food was required. This resulted in early armies' adopting the style of hunter-foraging.

The introduction of the baking of processed cereals, including the creation of flour, provided a more reliable source of food. Egyptian sailors carried a flat, brittle loaf of millet bread called ''dhourra'' cake while the Romans had a biscuit called ''buccellum''. Roman cookbook ''Apicius'' describes: "a thick paste of fine wheat flour was boiled and spread out on a plate. When it had dried and hardened, it was cut up and then fried until crisp, then served with honey and pepper."

Many early physicians believed that most medicinal problems were associated with digestion. Hence, for both sustenance and avoidance of illness, a daily consumption of a biscuit was considered good for health.

Hard biscuits soften as they age. To solve this problem, early bakers attempted to create the hardest biscuit possible. Because it is so hard and dry, if properly stored and transported, navies' hardtack will survive rough handling and high temperature. Baked hard, it can be kept without spoiling for years as long as it is kept dry. For long voyages, hardtack was baked four times, rather than the more common two. To soften hardtack for eating, it was often dunked in brine, coffee, or some other liquid or cooked into a skillet meal.

The collection '' Sayings of the Desert Fathers'' mentions that Anthony the Great (who lived in the 4th century AD) ate biscuits and the text implies that it was a popular food among monks of the time and region.

At the time of the Spanish Armada in 1588, the daily allowance on board a Royal Navy ship was one pound of biscuit plus one gallon of beer. Samuel Pepys in 1667 first regularised naval victualling with varied and nutritious rations. Royal Navy hardtack during Queen Victoria's reign was made by machine at the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard at Gosport, Hampshire, stamped with the Queen's mark and the number of the oven in which they were baked. When machinery was introduced into the process the dough was thoroughly mixed and rolled into sheets about long and wide which were stamped in one stroke into about sixty hexagonal-shaped biscuits. This left the sheets sufficiently coherent to be placed in the oven in one piece and when baked they were easy to separate. The hexagonal shape rather than traditional circular biscuits meant a saving in material and was easier to pack. Biscuits remained an important part of the Royal Navy sailor's diet until the introduction of canned foods. Canned meat was first marketed in 1814; preserved beef in tins was officially added to Royal Navy rations in 1847.

Confectionery biscuits

Early biscuits were hard, dry, and unsweetened. They were most often cooked after bread, in a cooling bakers' oven; they were a cheap form of sustenance for the poor.

By the 7th century AD, cooks of the Sassanian Empire had learnt from their forebears the techniques of lightening and enriching bread-based mixtures with eggs, butter, and cream, and sweetening them with fruit and honey. One of the earliest spiced biscuits was gingerbread, in French, ''pain d'épices'', meaning "spice bread", brought to Europe in 992 by the Armenian monk Grégoire de Nicopolis. He left Nicopolis Pompeii, of Lesser Armenia to live in Bondaroy, France, near the town of Pithiviers. He stayed there for seven years and taught French priests and Christians how to cook gingerbread. This was originally a dense, treaclely (molasses-based) spice cake or bread. As it was so expensive to make, early ginger biscuits were a cheap form of using up the leftover bread mix.

With the combination of knowledge spreading from Al-Andalus, and then the Crusades and subsequent spread of the spice trade to Europe, the cooking techniques and ingredients of Arabia spread into Northern Europe. By mediaeval times, biscuits were made from a sweetened, spiced paste of breadcrumbs and then baked (e.g., gingerbread), or from cooked bread enriched with sugar and spices and then baked again. King Richard I of England (aka Richard the Lionheart) left for the Third Crusade (1189–92) with "biskit of muslin", which was a mixed corn compound of barley, rye, and bean flour.

As the making and quality of bread had been controlled to this point, so were the skills of biscuit-making through the craft guilds. As the supply of sugar began, and the refinement and supply of flour increased, so did the ability to sample more leisurely foodstuffs, including sweet biscuits. Early references from the Vadstena monastery show how the Swedish nuns were baking gingerbread to ease digestion in 1444. The first documented trade of gingerbread biscuits dates to the 16th century, where they were sold in monastery pharmacies and town square farmers markets. Gingerbread became widely available in the 18th century. The Industrial Revolution in Britain sparked the formation of businesses in various industries, and the British biscuit firms of McVitie's, Carr's, Huntley & Palmers, and Crawfords were all established by 1850.

British biscuit companies vied to dominate the market with new products and eye-catching packaging. The decorative biscuit tin, invented by Huntley & Palmers in 1831, saw British biscuits exported around the world. In 1900 Huntley & Palmers biscuits were sold in 172 countries, and their global reach was reflected in their advertising. Competition and innovation among British firms saw 49 patent applications for biscuit-making equipment, tins, dough-cutting machines and ornamental moulds between 1897 and 1900. In 1891, Cadbury filed a patent for a chocolate-coated biscuit. Along with local farm produce of meat and cheese, many regions of the world have their own distinct style of biscuit due to the historic prominence of this form of food. The Scots, for example, created shortbread, and in 1898 the Scottish manufacturer Walker's Shortbread was founded.

Introduction in South Asia

Biscuits and loaves were introduced in Bengal during the British colonial period and became popular within the Sylheti Muslim community. However, the middle-class Hindus of Cachar and Sylhet were very suspicious of biscuits and breads as they believed they were baked by Muslims. On one occasion, a few Hindus in Cachar caught an Englishman eating biscuits with tea, which caused an uproar. The information reached the Hindus of Sylhet and a small rebellion occurred. In response to this, companies started to advertise their bread as "machine-made" and "untouched by (Muslim) hand" to tell Hindus that the breads were "safe for consumption". This incident is mentioned in Bipin Chandra Pal's autobiography and he mentions how culinary habits of Hindus gradually changed and biscuits and loaves eventually became increasingly popular.

Types

Biscuits can be placed in four categories, separated by their process and ingredients:

Crackers

Crackers are savory biscuits with a "crispy, open texture". They include biscuits such as cream crackers, " Ritz-type" crackers, saltines, snack crackers (e.g. Arnott's Shapes) and water biscuits. Cracker doughs often have some of the following features: they are leavened, have a water content between 15–25%, are laminated and rise during the first part of baking.

In a general process to make crackers, dough is mixed and fermented. It is fed through a dough feed conveyer to be laminated, sheeted and cut. It is baked, sprayed with oil and cooled, before finally being packed. Baking surfaces differ by the country biscuits are baked in: traditional British biscuits being baked on light wire mesh, while American biscuits are baked on heavy mesh. The baking process requires high amounts of energy to get the relatively high hydration doughs to a final biscuit that is 1.5–2.5% water.

Semi-sweet

Semi-sweet biscuits are distinguished by a their consistent texture and colour. This consistency, and a voluminous appearance are a product primarily of the presence of humidity during the first part of baking. Examples of semi-sweet biscuits include Arrowroot, Belvita, Marie, Petit-Beurre and Rich tea. The doughs of semi-sweet biscuits have strong gluten, making it shrink during baking. They have low sugar and fat contents, and their water content, about 12%, is reduced to 1.5–3% through the baking process. In making semi-sweet biscuits, the dough is mixed, fed, undergoes sheeting and is cut and baked. The biscuits are cooled before they are processed through stacking and/or packing.

Short doughs

Biscuits contain relatively high amounts of sugar and fat. The category covers many regional specialties, including the British custard cream and digestives, the Dutch speculaas, the Indian glucose biscuit and the Scottish shortbread. It also covers more generic biscuits of Lincoln and malted milk. Short biscuits are the simplest biscuits to make, which has led to them being widely produced in great volumes. They are frequently fortified. Short dough biscuits have a relatively low water content, and are cooked slower, and at low temperatures than crackers and semi-sweet biscuits.

Short doughs are produced through a two stage mixing process. The dough is stood, fed and undergoes rotary molding, the step by which short biscuits derive their alternative name of rotary molded biscuits. They are baked, cooled and stacked and packed. The structure is derived from a high humidity during early stages of baking

Cookies

The widest category, cookies have very soft doughs. They are often baked directly on a steel oven band. Cookies have high sugar and fat contents, and are cooked longer than other biscuits at relatively low temperatures. Through the presence of humidity during the first stage of cooking, cookies spread as they are baked. Many cookies contain inclusions, such as nuts, chocolate chips (chocolate chip cookie) and fruits (e.g. raisins and figs in fig rolls). They include butter cookies, extruded cookies and cookies with their centres filled.

Cookies are produced through mixing a dough in two stages. The dough is baked on a steel oven band. It is then cooled and finally stacked and/or packed.

Culture

Biscuits are eaten worldwide by people from many cultures.

In British culture, the digestive biscuit and rich tea biscuit are the traditional accompaniment to a cup of tea and are regularly eaten as such. Some tea drinkers dunk biscuits in tea, allowing them to absorb liquid and soften slightly before consumption. Chocolate digestives, rich tea, and Hobnobs were ranked the UK's top three favourite dunking biscuits in 2009."Chocolate digestive is nation's favourite dunking biscuit"
''The Telegraph''. 2 May 2009. Retrieved 28 December 2014. In a non-dunking poll the Chocolate Hobnob was ranked first with custard creams coming third.Favourite biscuits
''The Express''. Retrieved 13 March 2017

Industry

Brands in the European biscuit market are unusually old for the food and drink industry, with the main brands as of 2016 being on average 100 years old. Historically in these companies, the owners and top-level managers were heavily involved in brand management.

See also

* American and British English differences
* Biscuit tin
* Dog biscuit
* Ground biscuit
* Ka'ak
* List of baked goods
* List of biscuits and cookies
* List of shortbread biscuits and cookies
* Rusk
* take the biscuit idiom
* Biscotti, '' biscotti regina''

Notes

References

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British cuisine
European cuisine
Twice-baked goods
Types of food