Polly put the kettle on . . . as the old nursery rhyme goes.
Anne here, and today I'm talking about biscuits — not those baked items called scones in the UK and biscuits in the USA. I'm talking about those sweet treats that are called cookies in the USA and biscuits in the UK, Australia and other places. Just to make it more confusing, we also have cookies, but they are more the softer, slightly mounded treat that is half way between a crispy biscuit and a cake. Biscuits tend to be crisper and flatter — though they can also be softish. And just to add to the confusion, cookies to me are like rock cakes (see pic below). But let's not argue pointlessly about definitions — when I'm talking about biscuits, if you're American, just think cookies.
Over the years I've had a number of emails from readers asking about the gingernuts I often have my heroes crunch into. Are they the same as American ginger snaps? And do they have nuts? Never having tasted a US ginger snap, I can't answer the first question, though I think they're probably very similar. The answer to the second is, no, there are no nuts in a gingernut. And why is it called a gingernut? No idea. The web has various theories.
There was some interest from readers when I blogged about gingernuts recently on my personal blog, so I thought it might be fun to blog here about some of the other biscuits and treats my characters eat, usually with a cup of tea or coffee. The gingernuts my heroes often crunch into are crisp, sweetish, ginger biscuits, sometimes flavored also with cinnamon, cloves and other spices, and usually made with golden syrup. They can be baked crisp or soft.
Currently I have a heroine nibbling on crisp ratafia biscuits — which can come in various guises, but these ones are more like almond tuiles. I know I'm going to get queries saying, but isn't ratafia a drink? Yes, but it's also a biscuit, and a pudding, all of which are almond flavored. Ratafia biscuits and savoys (later known as ladyfingers) were often baked in long tins, and were often dipped (dunked) in sweet wine at the end of a meal. Here's Delia Smith's recipe and pic. for the almond tuiles.
Ships biscuit was a very hard, savory, twice-baked biscuit that was a substitute for bread, which wasn't available on long voyages by sailing ship. They preserved pretty well (though they often ended up weevilly) and were so hard they could break a tooth. They weren't meant to be eaten dry, however, and were soaked in the juices of stews made from whatever the ships cook could get — salt pork, fish, whatever was available. Ships took on fresh food where they could find it, but the staple ration was preserved meat and ship’s biscuit, generally served in a stew called lobscouse, which was a standard meal for sailors. (I used that word in a quiz once.)
In a Georgette Heyer (correction — it was Mary Stewart) novel once, I came across biscuits called singing hinnies, which always fascinated me, as I had no world wide web as a child, and had only context and imagination to decide what they were. The old cook made them as a special treat for a returning heroine, as she'd loved them as a child. Since then I've found quite a few recipes. Here's one. They're a bit like Welsh cakes, which my grandma used to make.
Wiggs are a sort of bun, flavored with caraway seeds and cut into wedges. Here's another recipe.
Currently I have a character whose favourite cake is "seed cake," which were generally flavored with caraway seeds, though I did come across one recipe that used poppy seeds. Seed cakes were very popular in the Regency, in fact my 1758 Compleat Housewife book of recipes by Eliza Smith contains five recipes for "seed cake, one of which was also called Nun's Cake — don't ask me why, but since it calls for 35 eggs, I won't be making it any time soon. Tis is her recipe.
"Jumbals" (or jumbles) also use caraway seed, and spices. Here's a recipe for them.
Cracknels are another kind of biscuit, flavored with dried orange and lemon peel and coriander seeds, all ground to a powder. They sound delicious, but since Eliza's recipe for them calls for 15 eggs, I'll be giving that one a miss, too. Though my heroes and heroine's probably won't. There's a slightly less extravagant recipe here.
I could go on for pages, but I won't. I just thought you might find some of these Regency-era biscuits interesting and fun. And if you're interested in learning more, there's a fascinating article on the history of the British biscuit here.
So now, let's put the kettle on, and we'll all have tea . . . or coffee. (Photo by Morgan Sessions on Unsplash)
Actually, it was a real surprise to me to discover than many Americans don't have an electric kettle or jug in the house — they use a coffee maker, or tea maker. Coming from a big tea drinking country, it's considered absolutely necessary to make tea not just with hot water — it has to be actually boiling, so here, almost everyone has a kettle. It's considered so basic a necessity that virtually every hotel room, from the most expensive to the cheapest roadside motel, will include a kettle in the room.
So, will you join me now for a cup of tea (or coffee) and a biscuit or two? What's your favourite biscuit? I have to admit I'm partial to gingernuts, and also ANZAC biscuits. And choc-chip biscuits, and . . .