>... biscuits are a distinctly southern thing. When was the last time you say one in New York - or San Francisco -..<

Ummmmmmm, there is more to the USA than NYC and SF.

I have had very good biscuits in Seattle, WA; Midland, Mi; Normal,Il; Boston, Ma and Rochester, NY as well as all over the South.

Biscuits aren't always crumbly. They aren't always served with cream gravy.

They are not scones.

Proper scones should be made with oatmeal.

((I))

Well I grew up in Chicago with no Southern affiliations, and we had (American) biscuits all the time. They're simply individually portioned breads eaten as a side dish to a meal - also sometimes called rolls or dinner rolls. I make mine from the tube rather than from scratch.

Scones are much better however, and fortunately there's a British import store not far from me that sells them frozen, the authentic English type. Some American bakeries sell a tasteless lump of dough they call a scone but they are not real authentic British scones.

I once read that the bread product sold in the U.S, called an "English muffin" is supposed to be the American version of the scone, and while I do like English muffins, other than the shape I find them to be nothing like scones at all.

I think our English muffins are more similar to crumpets, shape-wise and texture-wise, than scones.

ira, scones are not made with oatmeal.Oatcakes are made with oatmeal. Scones are made with flour, sugar, butter and milk.

Yes, the &quot;English Muffin&quot; is a misnomer. As originally formulated, it was <i>le muffin angl&eacute;</i> (an <u>angled</u> muffin), but the Brits, in their imperial arrogance, heard this as <i>muffin Anglais</i>, so English Muffin it was.

As Britannia Ruled the Waves (including the &quot;English&quot; Channel) and the Sun Never Set on the British Empire at the time, the rest of the world had no choice but to comply.

You can find biscuits w/gravy in just about every region of the USA if you look hard enough (big truck stop, Denny's, etc.) but I wouldn't call them a &quot;staple breadstuff across the USA&quot;.

I can go months on end without seeing one or even thinking of them. I don't know anyone where I live that eats them regularly. Unless traveling through the South or Midwest, the most I see of them is the Pillsbury can variety in the refrigerated case at the supermarket.

That said, a nice hot one -- split and slathered in butter and jam is good sometimes on a cold winter's morning while having tea.

I've never seen biscuits with gravy for breakfast, but maybe that's because I almost never ever eat breakfast in restaurants. I was recently in the west, where I did go to breakfast. There were a variety of american-style breakfast foods, but I didn't notice anyone eating anything that looked like biscuits with gravy over them. I still can't picture what this gravy is. My notion of biscuits is, as described above, either (1) the twice-cooked dry cookies, or (2) small fluffy singkle-portion breads, usually buttered, or (3) dog treats.

Yum...I love warm, buttery biscuits!
And I agree with the others; biscuits are certainly not only a southern thing. I did, in fact, have biscuits (with gravy, no less) at a restaurant in San Francisco and they were actually quite tasty. Most restaurants serving breakfast here in St. Louis have biscuits on the menu. And Ira, I agree...Cracker Barrel's biscuits are wonderful!

flanneruk, not all biscuits are crumbly. I prefer mine soft and buttery, and slightly firm on the outside. The few that I've had that I would classify as &quot;crumbly&quot; were the free biscuits given for breakfast at cheaper hotels.

Tracy

Well the only place I've seen biscuits with gravy at breakfast is in Atlanta, And I would qualify St. Louis as southern. As for Cracker Barrel - have never heard of it.

I am aware of those Pillsbury frozen things in tubes - but those are some sort of dinner item - I guess for places where there are no bakeries to buy real rolls - and they are certainly nothing like a decent roll - which has some appropriate crunch to it.

I beg to differ. I had to go to my freezer and dig out a bag of Pillsbury oven baked – Southern Style biscuits. This is not a frozen thing in a tube. They may not be the very best, but it comes close.

I am about ready to give up. Since I joined the forum I have been exposed to incredible feats in France, Italian delicacies to say nothing of crepe stands, macaroons, panforte. I have also been reminded of my former junk food diet that included peanut butter and jelly and now biscuits.

I am seriously planning a solo trip that will entail my taking a very small 21 inch suitcase. I am thinking thin and light. You guys are not cooperating.

Although both biscuits and scones have relatively simple ingredients, a skilled hand is required to make either of them well. I've had &quot;authentic&quot; British scones that were dense rock like formations with a 50 year digestive half life. Same for biscuits.

&gt;... biscuits are a distinctly southern thing. When was the last time you say one in New York - or San Francisco -..&lt;

What a myopic view of the US and absolutely wrong. I had great biscuits last month in Denver, Boulder, Salt Lake City, and Albuquerque.

Do those of you in Great Britain eat &quot;creamed chipped beef&quot;? Or, SOS?

And the twice baked thingies...biscotti perhaps?

Yes, the twice-baked items are definitely biscotti and not biscuits (we just made a batch of chocolate hazelnut - very delicious.)

Biscuits are very different from dinner rolls. No yeast for one thing in a biscuit.

I grew up outside of Philadelphia and never had biscuits and gravy, but most definitely had biscuits and butter and jam.

My biscuits now are made from Bisquick baking mix. They're nothing like real biscuits but,again, with butter and jelly, I like them.

A remarkable bisquit is part of the special (ie, near ceremonial) breakfast served at the Columbia River Gorge Hotel in Oregon.

Hi Barbara,

Perhaps, I should have said &quot;rolled oats&quot;?

See http://www.recipezaar.com/14892
which is almost identical to the recipe I was given by a Scottish lady many years ago.

((I))

Do the McDonald's restaurants in the UK sell Sausage Biscuit sandwiches for breakfast? It's a biscuit cut open with a sausage patty inside. The original Egg McMuffin breakfast sandwich is made with and English Muffin, but they now have the biscuit option as well.

nytraveler, you may think of St. Louis as southern, but most people who live here don't. St. Louis is very much a midwestern city.

They had biscuits and gravy on the breakfast buffet at the La Quinta Inn in Salt Lake City. Is that southern? Also, IHOP has biscuits and gravy and I know they're not only southern.

I spent about a year many moons ago living in NC in my grandmother's home. She didn't even measure her ingredients, just scooped some flour and baking soda and whatever else into a bowl, added some milk and made the most delicious biscuits I ever had. We never had gravy over them for breakfast that I recall. Then Hardees came to this small town, and all my aunts who lived there thought Hardees' sausage biscuits were most wonderful.

I am going to try Mrs. Robes' recipe, although I do not have a deft hand with biscuits or other flaky baked items. Lately, I have had my light and flakey biscuits straight from the freezer, delivered by our Schwan's Frozen Food man. (Even my scones, from the recipe in Taking Tea at the Savoy don't really rise, although they taste great!)

ira,

I have never heard of scones with oatmeal in them..and I grew up in Scotland. Maybe it's a highland thing.To my knowledge though, they may call them scones, but they're a distant relation. Even the shape is wrong, they should be cut in rounds.