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Biscuit (bread)
In the United States and Canada, a biscuit is a variety of quick bread with a firm, dry exterior and a soft, crumbly interior. It is made with baking powder as a leavening agent rather than yeast, and at times is called a baking powder biscuit to differentiate it from other types. Biscuits are often served with butter or other condiments, flavored with other ingredients, or combined with other types of food to make sandwiches or other dishes.
Biscuits developed from hardtack, which was first made from only flour and water, to which lard and then baking powder were added later.
Biscuits and scones are both quick breads with similar ingredients, but they differ in several respects. Biscuits are always made with a solid fat such as butter or vegetable shortening, whereas scones can be made with liquid cream. Biscuit recipes contain more fat and less liquid than scones. Scone recipes usually also include an egg. The mixing technique is also different, resulting in flakier, fluffier biscuits with laminated layers, compared to crumblier, denser scones.
Compared to the American style of scones, which tend to be sweet and have flavorful ingredients mixed in, biscuits tend to be plain, unflavored, and unsweetened. Flavored biscuits usually contain cheese or herbs.
Early hard biscuits were a simple, storable version of bread. The word "biscuit" itself originates from the medieval Latin word biscoctus, meaning "twice-cooked". The modern Italian baked goods known as biscotti (also meaning "twice-cooked" in Italian) most closely resemble the Medieval Latin item and cooking technique.
Ship's biscuits were first referenced in the 12th century in a journey Richard I took to Cyprus. They were made of barley, rye and bean flour. The British Royal Navy used hard, flour-based biscuits that would keep for long journeys at sea but would also become so difficult to chew that they had to be softened up. These were first introduced in 1588 to the rations of ships and found their way into the New World by the 1700s at the latest.
Early British settlers in the United States brought with them a simple, easy style of cooking, most often based on ground wheat and warmed with gravy. Most were not wealthy men and women, and so it was a source of cheap nutrition.[citation needed] Over time the term biscuit came to be associated in America primarily with a bread-like side accompanying a meal, while in most of the English-speaking world it came to refer only to a thin, hard baked good.
In the early 19th century, before the American Civil War, cooks created biscuits as a cheaply produced addition for their meals that required no yeast, which was expensive and difficult to store. With no leavening agents except the bitter-tasting pearlash available, beaten biscuits were laboriously beaten and folded to incorporate air into the dough which expanded when heated in the oven causing the biscuit to rise. In eating, the advantage of the biscuit over a slice of bread was that it was harder, and hence kept its shape when wiping up gravy in the popular combination biscuits and gravy.[citation needed]
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Biscuit (bread) AI simulator
(@Biscuit (bread)_simulator)
Biscuit (bread)
In the United States and Canada, a biscuit is a variety of quick bread with a firm, dry exterior and a soft, crumbly interior. It is made with baking powder as a leavening agent rather than yeast, and at times is called a baking powder biscuit to differentiate it from other types. Biscuits are often served with butter or other condiments, flavored with other ingredients, or combined with other types of food to make sandwiches or other dishes.
Biscuits developed from hardtack, which was first made from only flour and water, to which lard and then baking powder were added later.
Biscuits and scones are both quick breads with similar ingredients, but they differ in several respects. Biscuits are always made with a solid fat such as butter or vegetable shortening, whereas scones can be made with liquid cream. Biscuit recipes contain more fat and less liquid than scones. Scone recipes usually also include an egg. The mixing technique is also different, resulting in flakier, fluffier biscuits with laminated layers, compared to crumblier, denser scones.
Compared to the American style of scones, which tend to be sweet and have flavorful ingredients mixed in, biscuits tend to be plain, unflavored, and unsweetened. Flavored biscuits usually contain cheese or herbs.
Early hard biscuits were a simple, storable version of bread. The word "biscuit" itself originates from the medieval Latin word biscoctus, meaning "twice-cooked". The modern Italian baked goods known as biscotti (also meaning "twice-cooked" in Italian) most closely resemble the Medieval Latin item and cooking technique.
Ship's biscuits were first referenced in the 12th century in a journey Richard I took to Cyprus. They were made of barley, rye and bean flour. The British Royal Navy used hard, flour-based biscuits that would keep for long journeys at sea but would also become so difficult to chew that they had to be softened up. These were first introduced in 1588 to the rations of ships and found their way into the New World by the 1700s at the latest.
Early British settlers in the United States brought with them a simple, easy style of cooking, most often based on ground wheat and warmed with gravy. Most were not wealthy men and women, and so it was a source of cheap nutrition.[citation needed] Over time the term biscuit came to be associated in America primarily with a bread-like side accompanying a meal, while in most of the English-speaking world it came to refer only to a thin, hard baked good.
In the early 19th century, before the American Civil War, cooks created biscuits as a cheaply produced addition for their meals that required no yeast, which was expensive and difficult to store. With no leavening agents except the bitter-tasting pearlash available, beaten biscuits were laboriously beaten and folded to incorporate air into the dough which expanded when heated in the oven causing the biscuit to rise. In eating, the advantage of the biscuit over a slice of bread was that it was harder, and hence kept its shape when wiping up gravy in the popular combination biscuits and gravy.[citation needed]