Did Good

About Biscuits

Author: Jesse Monroy, Jr.

What is a Biscuit?

Biscuit from the Latin bis, meaning double, and cuit, meaning cooked, literally means "double cooked". In the USA (United States of America), however, it usually refers to a small quickbread made of wheat flour that is cooked just once. However, as we will see it can include yeast and other methods that are not technically considered quickbreads.

Biscuits have been around, in one form or another, for as long as anyone can remember. Originally, the biscuit was a sort of traveling food. This is why it was cooked twice. The first cooking was to cook the ingredients into an easily digestible form. The second cooking was to remove any moisture in the bread to prevent spoilage; thereby allowing long storage and distant travel.

As such, these "traveling" breads were usually small, thin, square wafers with a seires of holes. They were made small - so that they could be eaten while on the move. They were thin - so that so the could be stacked easily. They were square - so that they could be stored in a container without wasted space. And lastly, the holes were to promote even cooking and easy crumbling when they were to be eaten.

In the USA, these bread would be equal to what we called crackers, or saltines - without the salt. Although not salted, the early biscuits (crackers) may have been stored in barrels covered with salt to prolong storage. And as far as salt went, until very recently - the last hundred years or so, it was too expensive to waste. As a matter of fact, the roman legions were paid in salt - and salt was used as currency, just as paper money is today.

Some Notes on the Historial Uses of Biscuits

While on the march, the Roman Legions kept up to three (3) weeks supply of food with them. It included grain for making hard biscuit-bread, vegtables (like onions), dried beans and maybe a little dried fish or meat. The usual beverage was sour wine.

Durning Nelson's time the standard weekly ration for a sailor was one (1) gallon of beer (watered down), 2 pounds of beef, 1 lb of bread, 1 pint of oatmeal, 1/2 pint pease and 2 oz of butter.

During the Civil War, companies such as G.H. Bent Co., manufactured hard-tack for the Union Army. It was little more than whole wheat flour and water. However, for biscuit companies to survive they usually made their income on more traditional items, like Bent's Cold Water Cracker - which have been sold on trains and ships since 1801.

Overseas, Huntley and Palmers, a company with a strong Quaker background, has been making biscuits since 1822. At one time this company employeed 5000+ people in Reading England. However, the company's most remembered innovation is the biscuit tin. This innovation not only helped deliver fresh biscuits in a timely manner, but also became a marketing boom - as people used the tins for varied purposes; such as a place to store bibles and as ballot boxes.

In more recent times, the biscuit has traveled to both earthly poles, in artic and antartic expeditions with famed explorers Scott and Shackely. The biscuit even found it's way to the recent Middle East conflict - in the US lead, Operation Iraqi Freedom - as emergency releif aid. Lastly, if you have any doubt about the inpunity of the biscuit, an international group is asking that the current ($400) fee to climb Mount Everest be raised so that the funds are use clean the litter on the mountain; litter that includes wrappers for Chez biscuit.