Biscuit

Lore & Background

Early biscuits were hard, dry, and unsweetened, often cooked after bread in a cooling oven as cheap sustenance. Egyptian sailors carried dhourra cake, a flat millet bread; Romans had buccellum. The Roman cookbook Apicius describes a paste of fine wheat flour boiled, dried, cut, fried, and served with honey and pepper. Many early physicians believed biscuits aided digestion, so daily consumption was considered healthy. Hardtack, baked four times for long voyages, could last years if kept dry and was often softened by dunking in brine or coffee. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened, usually sweet and made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon, though savoury versions are called crackers or biscuits for cheese. Types include biscotti, sandwich biscuits like custard creams, digestives, ginger biscuits, shortbread, chocolate chip cookies, Anzac biscuits, and speculaas. The term "biscuit" derives from Latin meaning "twice-cooked," originally baked then dried in a slow oven. In the United States and parts of Canada, sweet biscuits are called cookies, flat savoury ones are crackers, and "biscuit" refers to a soft, flaky quick bread similar to a scone.

Reader's Guide

Biscuits have been crucial for long journeys, especially at sea. Early armies adopted hunter-foraging, but the baking of processed cereals provided a more reliable food source. Egyptian sailors carried a flat, brittle millet bread, while Romans had a biscuit called buccellum, described in a Roman cookbook as a thick wheat paste boiled, spread, dried, cut, fried, and served with honey and pepper. Many early physicians believed digestive problems caused most illnesses, so daily biscuit consumption was considered healthy. Hard biscuits soften with age, so early bakers aimed for the hardest possible product. If kept dry, hardtack could survive rough handling and high temperatures for years. For long voyages, it was baked four times instead of the usual two, and was often softened by dunking in brine or coffee. The 4th-century monk Anthony the Great ate biscuits, a popular food among monks. By the Spanish Armada in 1588, a Royal Navy sailor’s daily ration was one pound of biscuit and a gallon of beer. Samuel Pepys regularised naval rations in 1667. During Queen Victoria’s reign, hardtack was machine-made at Gosport, stamped with the Queen’s mark and oven number. The dough was rolled into sheets and stamped into about sixty hexagonal biscuits per sheet, saving material and easing packing. Biscuits remained vital until canned foods were introduced, with preserved beef in tins added to rations in 1847. Early biscuits were hard, dry, and unsweetened, cooked after bread in a cooling oven as cheap food for the poor. By the 7th century, Sassanian cooks had learned to lighten mixtures with eggs, butter, and cream, sweetening them with fruit and honey. One of the earliest spiced biscuits was gingerbread, brought to France in 992 by an Armenian monk who taught French priests.

Did You Know?

• The word 'biscuit' comes from Latin 'bis' (twice) and 'coquere' (to cook), meaning twice-cooked.
• Royal Navy hardtack during Queen Victoria's reign was stamped with the Queen's mark and the oven number.
• The first documented trade of gingerbread biscuits dates to the 16th century, sold in monastery pharmacies and town squares.

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