Marmite Debate

Marmite is just a poor imitation of Vegemite.

These are crumpets.

Not even on the same planet.
These are scones. Closer to bread than biscuits. Closer still to an Australian bush tucker called "damper".

They look exactly like biscuits. Do you speak British and say 'biscuit' when you mean cookie?

Probably. Don't get me started on the American treatment of the English language.

Well, you want a cookie around here, don't ask for a biscuit.

Scones are a drier, harder version of what Americans call biscuits. You can have my share of the scones.

I can only assume Americans don't know how to cook them. A scone isn't supposed to be hard.

I didn't say they were hard, i said they are harder than biscuits, as biscuits are known in the United States. Yes, i'm sure that we don't know anything about anything that comes from outside the United States, as so many here are fond of asserting so often.

A well-made scone is also drier than a well-made, American style biscuit.

I'll have to try what you call biscuits. Don't where I'm going to get them from though.

From Wiki. I never knew anything about this until today.

Variations in meaning[edit]
In Commonwealth English, a biscuit is a small baked product that would be called either a "cookie" or a "cracker" in the United States and sometimes a "cookie" in English-speaking Canada.[1] Biscuits in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and Ireland may be savoury (savoury biscuits are often referred to as "crackers") or sweet, such as chocolate biscuits, ginger nuts, custard creams, or the Nice biscuit. Although in Commonwealth Nations, the term "cookie" may be synonymous with "biscuit", a cookie is generally a softer baked product.
In the United States and Canada, a "biscuit" is a savory quick bread, somewhat similar to a scone, though eggs and sugar are not used in the dough. Leavening is achieved through the use of baking powder and sometimes a small amount of baking soda is added as well. Biscuits are usually referred to as either "baking powder biscuits"[2] or "buttermilk biscuits" if buttermilk is used rather than milk as a liquid. A Southern regional variation using the term "beaten biscuit" (or in New England "sea biscuit") is closer to hardtack than soft dough biscuits.[3]

Note the qualifier "well-made." Biscuits in the United States are made, usually, with vegetable shortening or lard--although biscuits made with lard have become very, very rare because of health obsession. That's why they're not as dry as a scone. Buttermilk biscuits, if well-made, use far less shortening than standard biscuit recipes, and are therefore, lighter, and even less "hard" than scones, or regular biscuits.

This recipe does not use any shortening or lard, but rather, uses butter. Using butter in a buttermilk biscuit seems to me to be gilding the lily, but i've never had them, so i can't say how they would differ from what i'm used to. The buttermilk biscuit recipe with which i am familiar uses shortening, and even less of it than the butter called for in that recipe. This is, roughly, what i would expect to see:



A good buttermilk biscuit is light enough that you can pull them apart with your fingers. Ordinary American biscuits are usually opened with a fork. Then people spread butter, fruit preserves, molasses or honey on them. I love 'em hot out of the oven, and then spread butter on them. As is the case with most foods, there is a world of difference between well-made biscuits that you make at home, and what you get in a restaurant.

I had never heard of a "beaten biscuit," by the way, until i read of it in your Wiki excerpt.

I knew you were twisted -- yeah the aftertaste sort of tastes like licking a vitamin.

See you are twisted - I love scones - but the kind without any fruit in it. I like a nice cinnamon scone and even had a cheddar and bacon one that was quite nice.

What what I can see, a beaten biscuit is from dough that has been over kneaded, and the gluten would toughen up.

Yeah, ok, great.

Again with the generalizations.

Can you describe the difference without just saying vegemite is bettter?

Yeah, that sounds about right. Back in the old timey days, when armies of local militias would march (we're talking a thousand years ago or more), they would do that to bread dough, and then bake it twice. It must have been hell to eat, but it could, apparently, keep for a couple of weeks. Maybe that was what they were doing with those "beaten biscuits," coming up with a way for them to keep for several days, or weeks, while they went hunting, or sailed off to the Bahamas, or whatever.

Ask me how I know about over kneaded biscuits.