Cookies versus Biscuits

Biscuits in the U.S. are similar to bread-scones. They are similar in shape and look to scones but they are plain bread with no fruit or other filling. Biscuits are often paired with chicken, or they can be buttered/spread with jam (jelly).

They look like this:

The word "cookie" is derived from the Dutch, who ran NY before the British took over...

Heeven, when you say paired with chicken do you simply mean they are eaten with a savoury dish?

I'm not familiar with the term bread scones, where I live scones are a type of sweetcake with sultanas in that you cut in half and butter.

S'funny, I've just tried "biscuit" in the English/Dutch online dictionary.....

...and the Dutch word for biscuit is "biscuit".

Typing the word "cookie" draws a blank.

Maybe it is an olde worlde Dutch word?

Milord, I picked up the Dutch etymology for cookie in a book about the Dutch period in NY. According to the American Heritage College Dictionary, cookie derives from the Dutch "koekje", a diminutive of "koek" (cake).

http://www.takeourword.com/Issue004.html

<the most entertaining source for this I could find>

Yep I know. I'm from Ireland so my Mom used to bake fruit scones all the time - hot out of the oven, smeared with jam and topped with fresh whipped cream - yum!

However, they don't generally have scones here, unless I go to a specialty store. When I first saw biscuits they looked identical to scones but they are not sweet. They are made just like a heavy bread and they are used as an accompaniment to a dinner plate or as part of a breakfast sandwich. They can be served with fried chicken pieces (biscuits on the side) or with creamy chicken (chicken and some sort of sauce).

Or a sandwich-type filled with bacon, egg, sausage, cheese, etc.

Scones over here CAN be of the savoury variety, but they are not very common nowadays. Cheese scones are scrummy.

Thanks for the info on the word "cookie" D'Art and Ebeth. So I can now say in all honesty that cookies in the USA are really kaka.

By scrummy, do you mean ucky or scrumptious? And biscuits should not be heavy, although commercial ones almost always are. They should be light as air. The trouble is the flour - White Lily flour is the best and it's only sold in certain parts of the country...

I might be wrong, seeing as how Heeven lives in Boston, but I always thought biscuits were more of a Southern thing.

I never had a biscuit until I was about 22 and at the time I wasn't impressed. I was hungover and was dragged to this restaurant in Tallahasse called "Skeeters Big Biscuits" (the name Skeeter is a whole 'nother story)

I remember thinking..."This is just a bunch of dough! I'm gonna puke. I wonder if they sell beer here at 8am?"

I didn't know they were like scones...only had scones once and I know I didn't get a good representation of them. I mean, at least I hope they were supposed to be all dry. It was at this really horrible place in Florida.

Biscuits aren't health food so I don't eat them often. They are an all purpose food, for sweet or savory...white gravy, red eye gravy, jelly, honey, butter, eggs, whatever you like.

Yeah I have to admit I'm not a biscuit fan. If there's nothing else, I'll eat it, but I'd rather anything else.

A good biscuit is a few bites of heaven. Most biscuits are good substitutes for hockey pucks.

I'll admit...I'm a good cook...but a horrible baker.

Anything that's got gluten in it better stay away from me.

I just have no feel for it. Actually, those pillsbury microwavable ones are not bad at all.

I know, I know, but try them sometime.

They're done in like 10 seconds.

They can also be served drenched in a white sauce, the combination being called "biscuits and gravey."

cookies and biscuits
Hi everyone this BigJim: this my first transmission on this forum.
I think it is best said that I am a man from scratch. that is the way I
cook. I think all these frozen products is good for is to throw at the
dog running down the street. Can anyone argue that homemade is
not the best. Making biscuits is just like making anything else. you
just have to practice and just like making pie crusts. or better yet
tortillas. What makes the difference if the british calls cookies
biscuits, You know that it is alot different like on the west coast
where I am from we call it a milk shake and on the east coast it is
called a frape pardon my spelling. but I think you get the Idea. I
will tell you what a love about cooking no matter where you come
from, people are going to have there own little way to make say
this one recipe, and that is the beauty of cooking. I have been on
here long enough. As my motto goes. (I eat to live so I can live
to eat.) take care and god bless......

BJ: I think "frappe" is pretty much just eastern MA by now, and gradually being beaten back by "milkshake". Actually we do have milkshakes here too--they're shaken milk (and flavored syrup). If you want ice cream in it, then you order a frappe. It's mostly old line soda shop sthat calls them that now; Mickey D's, which only offers their aerated foam "milkshakes" seems to be winning the name battle. Rhode Island, at least into the 70s, used to (and maybe in some places still does) call them "cabinets". God knows why. And a few stores, including my local Star market until last year, called the soda aisle "tonic" on the overhead signs.

Biscuits are pretty much everywhere; I don't think they are specially a Southern thing. What is special, though, is the way we ate them in New Orleans - we put cane syrup on them, and, if lucky, spread them with a thicker syrup, made from the last leavings of the can syrup process, called (I'm not sure of the spelling) cuite (pronounced kweet).

That was a special treat for sure.

yum, tomk! warm... sweet... melty... drippy... A couple of those and a nap in the rocker on the porch...

How wierd - i'd get all confused if i went to the U.S. Someone i know went there, and asked for chips and tomato sauce. They were confused, and brought out crisps with squeezed tomato juice on the side. lol!