A rusk is a hard, dry
biscuit
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.
...
or a twice-baked
bread
Bread is a baked food product made from water, flour, and often yeast. It is a staple food across the world, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cu ...
. It is sometimes used as a
teether for babies. In some cultures, rusk is made of
cake
Cake is a flour confection usually made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elabor ...
rather than bread: this is sometimes referred to as cake rusk. In the UK, the name also refers to a wheat-based
food additive
Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or enhance taste, appearance, or other sensory qualities. Some additives, such as vinegar ( pickling), salt ( salting), smoke ( smoking) and sugar ( crystallization), have been used f ...
.
International variations
Argentina
In Argentina, rusk is called (literally 'table toasts'), slices of twice-baked bread generally available in supermarkets in plain and sweetened variants. Cake rusk is called ''bay biscuit''; its ingredients are egg, sugar, oil, self-rising flour, and vanilla.
File:AR-Tostadas-de-Mesa.jpg, alt=Tostadas de Mesa, Tostadas de Mesa
File:AR-Bay-Biscuit.jpg, alt=Bay Biscuit, Bay Biscuit
Azerbaijan
Rusk is called ( – a loanword from
Russian
Russian(s) may refer to:
*Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*A citizen of Russia
*Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages
*''The Russians'', a b ...
via
Persian) in Azerbaijani. It is usually made from stale bread and buns. In
Baku
Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...
, some bakeries use their stale buns and bread for making rusks. The price of rusk in those bakeries is usually low, as the bakeries do this to avoid wasting the leftover bread and buns.
Bangladesh
Rusk is commonly called toast biscuit. Toast biscuits come in a variety of flavours, such as
ghee
Ghee is a type of clarified butter, originating from South Asia. It is commonly used for cooking, as a Traditional medicine of India, traditional medicine, and for Hinduism, Hindu religious rituals.
Description
Ghee is typically prepared by ...
toast, garlic toast, and sugar toast, and are usually served with tea. Cake rusk is commonly known as dry cake.
Britain
Butcher rusk is a dry biscuit broken into particles, sorted by particle size and sold to butchers and others for use as a
food additive
Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or enhance taste, appearance, or other sensory qualities. Some additives, such as vinegar ( pickling), salt ( salting), smoke ( smoking) and sugar ( crystallization), have been used f ...
in
sausage
A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs, may be included as fillers or extenders.
...
manufacture.
Though originally made from
stale bread, now called bread-rusk, a
yeast
Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom (biology), kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are est ...
-free variety called simply rusk is now more commonly used.
Various rusk particle sizes are used in the food industry, where uses include:
* A carrier for flavours, colours and seasonings
* A binding agent in
hamburgers,
sausages, stuffings, pies, and other compound meat products
* As an ingredient for dried
stuffing
Stuffing, filling, or dressing is an edible mixture, often composed of herbs and a Starch#Food, starch such as bread, used to fill a cavity in the preparation of another food item. Many foods may be stuffed, including poultry, seafood, and v ...
mixes
Farley's Rusks
In the UK,
Farley's Rusks are a dry
teething
Teething is the process by which an infant's first teeth (the deciduous teeth, often called "baby teeth" or "milk teeth") appear by emerging through the gums, typically arriving in pairs. The mandibular central incisors are the first primary te ...
biscuit dating from the 1880s, but manufactured by
Heinz
The Kraft Heinz Foods Company, formerly the H. J. Heinz Company and commonly known as Heinz (), is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. ...
since 1994. They are usually given to infants, either soaked in milk and mashed up or in their original hard form as a teething aid.
Cuba
Sponge rusk (Cuban Spanish: esponru) is similar to
biscotti but it is made out of twice-baked yellow cake batter. The yellow cake batter is baked into a flat, rectangular cake pan. After it is baked and cooled, it is sliced into strips and baked again or toasted to make cake toast. It is usually eaten with
café cubano (Cuban espresso) or as an accompaniment to
ice cream
Ice cream is a frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as Chocolate, cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. Food ...
,
custard
Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with Eggs as food, egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in con ...
, or other dessert dishes.
Denmark
is derived from Dutch (literally 'two bake'), an archaic synonym of ''beschuit''.
France
A is a French type of rusk. They are sold packaged in supermarkets.
Finland

A Finnish type of rusk is called ''
korppu'', usually a dried piece of bun, flavoured with
cinnamon
Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...
or
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose
Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...
. is a common coffee bread, normally eaten after having been dipped in
coffee
Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...
. A sour version, called , is a flat rusk made from
rye
Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is grown principally in an area from Eastern and Northern Europe into Russia. It is much more tolerant of cold weather and poor soil than o ...
flour and salt, and can be eaten like
crispbread.
Germany
(literally 'twice baked') is a form of rusk in Germany. Like the Danish and French words, the name refers to being baked or cooked twice.
Greece
The term ''
paximadi'' () covers various forms of Greek rusk, commonly made from
barley
Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...
or
chickpea
The chickpea or chick pea (''Cicer arietinum'') is an annual plant, annual legume of the family (biology), family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae, cultivated for its edible seeds. Its different types are variously known as gram," Bengal gram, ga ...
flour, and softened with wine, water, or oil before eating. form the basis of the Cretan snack ''
dakos'' ().
India

In
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
rusk (sometimes also called toast biscuit) is a traditional dried bread or cake. It is also known as papay, rattan, (), or cake rusk in
Hindi-Urdu
Hindustani is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in North India and Pakistan as the lingua franca of the region. It is also spoken by the Deccani-speaking community in the Deccan plateau. Hindustani is a pluricentric language with two standa ...
, and
Punjabi or in Tamil or in
Bengali. It is usually eaten dipped in milk tea which softens the rusk. The sweet "cake rusk" version is made of cake whose ingredients include wheat flour, sugar, fat,
leavening agent
In cooking, a leavening agent () or raising agent, also called a leaven () or leavener, is any one of a number of substances used in doughs and batters that cause a foaming action (gas bubbles) that lightens and softens the mixture. An altern ...
, and, optionally, eggs. A popular variant is flavoured with
cardamom
Cardamom (), sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genus (biology), genera ''Elettaria'' and ''Amomum'' in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indon ...
.
Indonesia
Double baked bread in
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
is called , believed to originate from
Bagelen, a village in
Central Java
Central Java (, ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogya ...
. Before the second bake, the bread is smeared with sugar and buttercream. It is usually eaten as a snack.
Iran
In
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
, rusk is called (). It is made from wheat flour, sugar, skimmed milk powder, vegetable oil, gluten, malt extract, soy flour, salt, yeast, and water. It is eaten as a dunking biscuit, particularly with Persian chai (tea). The most common brand of is Vitana.
Italy
In Italy, rusk is called (twice-baked slices). It should not be confused with (sweet cookies or biscuits).
Japan
In Japan, rusk is often a delicacy made from baguette, cake or croissant. It is often sweet.
The Levant
In the
Levant
The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...
this form is called () in
Iraq
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
and
Syria
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
or () in
Jordan
Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...
. It is made from flour, eggs, oil or butter, sugar, yeast or baking powder, and sometimes a small amount of
cardamon. It is topped with roasted
sesame
Sesame (; ''Sesamum indicum'') is a plant in the genus '' Sesamum'', also called benne. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for ...
seeds, black
caraway
Caraway, also known as meridian fennel and Persian cumin (''Carum carvi''), is a biennial plant in the family Apiaceae, native to western Asia, Europe, and North Africa.
Etymology
The etymology of "caraway" is unclear. Caraway has been ...
seeds, or anise, and eaten as a dunking biscuit, especially with herbal tea.
Netherlands and Belgium (Flanders)
''Beschuit'', also known as Dutch crispbakes, are light, round, rather crumbly, unsweetened rusks as eaten in the
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
and
Belgium
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
. When a baby is born in the Netherlands, it is customary to serve ''
beschuit met muisjes'' (with 'little mice', which are
anise
Anise (; '), also called aniseed or rarely anix, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Southwest Asia.
The flavor and aroma of its seeds have similarities with some other spices and herbs, ...
eds covered in a white and pink or blue sugar layer, depending on the newborn's gender). are also eaten as a breakfast food with a variety of toppings, most commonly butter and sprinkles in flavours such as
chocolate
Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods.
Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...
( or ) or fruit (),
jam or cheese. A longtime Dutch favourite is to serve
strawberries
The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid plant cultivated worldwide for its fruit. The genus ''Fragaria'', the strawberries, is in the rose family, Rosaceae. The fruit is appreciated f ...
on , which is usually topped with sugar or whipped cream.
' are made by first baking a flat round bread (), slicing it in half, and then baking each half again, usually at a lower heat. It is almost always sold in rolls; a roll typically has 13 rusks (a
baker's dozen
A dozen (commonly abbreviated doz or dz) is a grouping of twelve.
The dozen may be one of the earliest primitive integer groupings, perhaps because there are approximately a dozen cycles of the Moon, or months, in a cycle of the Sun, or year ...
). They became popular in the 17th century, as
''scheepsbeschuit'', a food that keeps well during long sea journeys. Etymologically, ''
biscotto'' (16th-century Italian), ''biscuit'' (19th century, from 16th-century ''bisket'') and ' come from the Latin phrase , '(bread), twice cooked'.
Norway
In Norway, rusk is referred to as , and is similar to the Swedish . Crushed , called , is used, amongst other things, for making
''kjøttkaker'' and in the traditional dessert ''
tilslørte bondepiker''. is also broken up and can be served with regular, soured or cultured milk.
Pakistan
In Pakistan, rusk is colloquially known as (). It is either available as a spherical shape that is akin to a bun or as separate rectangular pieces. It is a popular breakfast food, and is usually eaten by dipping it into milk tea, locally known as , to soften it. It is called () in
Punjabi.
Philippines
The Philippine version of rusk is called ''
biscocho''. Cake rusks are called ''
mamon tostado''.
Portugal
The Portuguese version of rusk is called . is a hard coarse-textured slice of bread – which can be sweet, but most often savory – and it can be of various shapes and thicknesses. It is often ground up and used as
bread crumbs
Breadcrumbs are a culinary ingredient consisting of flour or crumbled bread of varying dryness, sometimes with seasonings added. They are used for a variety of purposes, including breading or crumbing foods before frying (such as breaded cut ...
.
Russia
The Russian version is called (Cyrillic: ), from 'dry'. They are either baked a second time from sweet
challah
Challah or hallah ( ; , ; 'c'''hallot'', 'c'''halloth'' or 'c'''hallos'', ), also known as berches in Central Europe, is a special bread in Jewish cuisine, usually braided and typically eaten on ceremonial occasions such as Shabbat ...
-like bread, sliced in
biscotti fashion or made of leftover stale bread, cut into small cubes and air-dried or baked at a very low temperature. The first one is like a cookie, which can be served with milk,
kefir
Kefir ( ; alternative spellings: kephir or kefier; ; ; ) is a Fermented milk products, fermented milk drink similar to a thin yogurt or ayran that is made from kefir grains, a specific type of mesophilic SCOBY, symbiotic culture. It is prep ...
, tea, coffee or cacao. The second one is usually added to soup, clear or otherwise, softening up from absorbed liquids and accompanying it instead of bread. It became a tradition to avoid wasting leftover bread that always was a staple in Russian cuisine. There is much folklore about bread in the Russian language, paying respect to this grain food that is one of the cornerstones of Slavic nations' life and history. Rye bread rusks are the major ingredient in making of the Russian
kvass
Kvass is a fermented, cereal-based, low-alcoholic beverage of cloudy appearance and sweet-sour taste.
Kvass originates from northeastern Europe, where grain production was considered insufficient for beer to become a daily drink. The first wr ...
, a traditional
fermented beverage
This is a list of fermented foods, which are foods produced or preserved by the action of microorganisms. In this context, Fermentation in food processing, fermentation typically refers to the fermentation of sugar to ethanol, alcohol using yeas ...
.
South Africa

Definition
''Rusks'' is the anglicized term for and is a traditional
Afrikaner
Afrikaners () are a Southern African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers who first arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: Brain to Casting''. Encyclopæd ...
breakfast meal or snack. They have been
dried in South Africa since the late 1690s as a way of preserving bread, especially when traveling long distances without refrigeration. Their use continued through the
Great Trek
The Great Trek (, ) was a northward migration of Dutch-speaking settlers who travelled by wagon trains from the Cape Colony into the interior of modern South Africa from 1836 onwards, seeking to live beyond the Cape's British colonial adminis ...
and the
Boer Wars through to the modern day. Rusks are typically
dunked in coffee or tea before being eaten.
Recipe
Rusks are essentially double-baked bread dough. Round balls of dough are closely packed in pans and baked like bread, after which long chunks are cut or broken off and slowly re-baked to a dry consistency. Several modern-day, mass-produced versions are available, the most famous brand being
Ouma Rusks. Many bakeries, delis, and home industries sell commercial rusks, sometimes made from non-traditional ingredients, such as
baking powder
Baking powder is a dry chemical leavening agent, a mixture of a carbonate or bicarbonate and a weak acid. The base and acid are prevented from reacting prematurely by the inclusion of a buffer such as cornstarch. Baking powder is used to increas ...
rather than sourdough. In addition to plain and
buttermilk
Buttermilk is a fermented dairy drink. Traditionally, it was the liquid left behind after churning butter out of cultured cream. As most modern butter in Western countries is not made with cultured cream but uncultured sweet cream, most mode ...
flavours,
aniseed
Anise (; '), also called aniseed or rarely anix, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Southwest Asia.
The flavor and aroma of its seeds have similarities with some other spices and herbs, ...
,
wholewheat,
condensed milk
Condensed milk is Milk#Cow, cow's milk from which water has been removed (roughly 60% of it). It is most often found with sugar added, in the form of sweetened condensed milk, to the extent that the terms "condensed milk" and "sweetened condensed m ...
,
muesli
Muesli ( ) is a cold Swiss cuisine, Swiss breakfast dish, the primary ingredient of which is rolled oats. Traditionally, it is set to soak in water overnight ("overnight oats") and eaten the next morning with fresh fruit, nuts, lemon juice, and ...
, and lemon
poppyseed variations are also available.
Sweden

''
Skorpor'' (plural; singular ) are a Swedish form of rusk. They are usually unflavoured or flavoured with
cardamom
Cardamom (), sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genus (biology), genera ''Elettaria'' and ''Amomum'' in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indon ...
, but can also be flavoured with herbs, dried fruit, nuts, or spices such as
anise
Anise (; '), also called aniseed or rarely anix, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Southwest Asia.
The flavor and aroma of its seeds have similarities with some other spices and herbs, ...
. Swedish bakery company
Pågen makes the world's most-sold rusk brand, Krisprolls. The traditional Swedish way to eat them is dipping them into a beverage such as
coffee
Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...
,
milk
Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...
or
juice
Juice is a drink made from the extraction or Cold-pressed juice, pressing of the natural liquid contained in fruit and vegetables. It can also refer to liquids that are flavored with concentrate or other biological food sources, such as meat ...
.
Butter
Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of Churning (butter), churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 81% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread (food ...
and possibly
cheese
Cheese is a type of dairy product produced in a range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk (usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats or sheep). During prod ...
,
marmalade
Marmalade (from the Portuguese ''marmelada'') is a fruit preserves, fruit preserve made from the juice and peel of citrus fruits boiled with sugar and water. The well-known version is made from bitter orange. It also has been made from lemons ...
or
jam can be added on top; they may be eaten together with a beverage or a fruit soup.
Rusks are known in Sweden at least since the 16th century. Rusks were provisions in the military units and on ships. Back then they could also be crushed with a hammer and the crumbs ended up in ,
beer
Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grain—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The grain is mashed to convert starch in the ...
and
soup
Soup is a primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot – though it is sometimes served chilled – made by cooking or otherwise combining meat or vegetables with Stock (food), stock, milk, or water. According to ''The Oxford Compan ...
.
Turkey
In
Turkish, rusk is called . means 'solid, tight, durable' in Turkish and is an Arabic word () meaning 'bread' or 'flour'. Another name is , a
loanword
A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...
from
Catalan.
United States
In the US, commonly available types of rusk include
melba toast and
croutons, which are sold packaged in grocery stores, and
biscotti, which are found both at grocery stores and coffee shops.
See also
*
Bread crumbs
Breadcrumbs are a culinary ingredient consisting of flour or crumbled bread of varying dryness, sometimes with seasonings added. They are used for a variety of purposes, including breading or crumbing foods before frying (such as breaded cut ...
, an ingredient sometimes used in a similar way to butcher rusk.
*
Milk toast, some modern store-bought forms of which strongly resemble rusks with slight flavouring and sweeteners.
*
Hardtack
Hardtack (or hard tack) is a type of dense Cracker (food), cracker made from flour, water, and sometimes salt. Hardtack is inexpensive and long-lasting. It is used for sustenance in the absence of perishable foods, commonly during long sea voyage ...
, a type of rusk historically eaten aboard ships.
*
List of bread dishes
References
{{Bread
Breads
Biscuits
South African cuisine
Dutch cuisine
Finnish cuisine
Twice-baked goods
de:Zwieback
nl:Beschuit