I was taught that scones are triangular.

How is the word "scone" pronounced?

Welcome to the world of class and regional prejudice.

Soft shandy drinking southerners like me call them "Scohnes" with a long O. Rufty tufty northern oiks and the hoi-poloi call them "sconns".

And the stone that the scottish monarchs sat on is pronounced the "Stone of Scoon" (spelt Scone).

Crumpets are always round, unless you are using the term "crumpet" in it's slang sense, in which case they come in a variety of delightful shapes.

You are absolutey right, Ira. I stand corrected. Tex-Mex...the "other" comfort food. :D

David is correct as to the pronunciation of "scone," as this verse illustrates:

I asked the maid, in dulcet tone,
To order me a buttered scone.
The silly girl has been and gone
And ordered me a buttered scone.

Would it look weird if I went to lunch at 10:20 a.m. Well, maybe just a break and head over to Biscuitville. This thread is making me VERY hungry.

I don't know much about food science but somehow buttermilk has a similar quality to baking powder and baking soda in causing a chemical reaction to make biscuits rise.

In addition to Pillsbury frozen biscuits, also try 'Mary B' brand frozen biscuits. Both are much better than the canned biscuits (but opening the can is cool and a great way to bang out some aggression).

Southern diet includes more than sugar and salt, it has as much more cholesterol as your ateries can stand.

I've never been to Stuckey's but I see billboards for the pecan log.

Watch out Biscuitville, here I come.

David, chipped beef is a very stringy sort of dried, salted beef that is almost always prepared in a cream sauce and served on toast or biscuits. Now, I think I have that right, it was my mother's favorite, but I hated it and so only tasted it once.

Now, what is an "oik?"

Suki: That sounds foul. Do you have corned beef in murrca?

An oik is a pleb, a chav, a wrong ‘un, a pov, a dole-mole, an Asbonaut, a pramface, a chardonnay. Hope that helps.

David: we do indeed have the aforementioned foul concoction known as chipped beef in murrca.

I googled dole-mole. The first explanation (and I'm sure it was just what you meant) was a "closet supporter of Bob Dole" :)

My mother's version of a corned beef recipe:

"You start with a perfectly good brisket..."

DavidWest, you said: <<Having read this thread I have concluded that we are divided by more than just a common language (and a lot of fish). In England we dip biscuits in tea. Lovely, especially a digestive or ginger nut (never a Hob-Nob which are Satan’s work).>>

My gut reaction to the word "biscuit" is closer to yours, though the biscuits I'm most familiar with are the Italian style ones. The biscuits with gravy thing is just as foreign to me as it is to you. I've heard about it many times, mostly on Fodors or in stories, though without a prescie description until Statia explained it, but have never seen it or tasted it.

I think chipped beef was a dish served to Ameerican soldiers during WWII. Or at least I heard about it from my father who was subjected to it in that context.

Well, there's corned beef and then there's corned beef. On the one hand, there's a brisket that's been corned (brined) and spiced. Put this on a good rye bread with good mustard. On the other hand there's that indeterminate stuff in cans that's more like Spam. God knows what you do with it.

Here's the recipe from the 1910 Manual for Army Cooks

http://www.seabeecook.com/cookery/recipes/chipb1910.htm

Mom used the little glass jar of Hormel dried beef (sliced)

Slang name is abbreviated as SOS. I don't want to go there because I don't want the editors to get upset.

for cmt:

http://www.hollyeats.com/images/Sout...cuitsGravy.jpg


You've never in your life seen or heard of anything remotely resembling this? Not even in a movie or on TV?

Are you sure you're American? May I see your papers, please! :)


And you <i>really</i> don't know what a biscuit (as we describe) is? That's hard to believe, but I'll accept it.

Nimrod, I said (above) that I HAVE heard of it, mainly in fiction and on Fodors, but that I've neveractually seen it or eaten it. I also don't hear people talking about eating it, the way they talk about having pancakes or waffles or eggs or pastries for a special breakfast. I do think American food is regional. Many people have never seen or tasted foods that were common when I was growing up, or if they have, it was not until decades later. The other factor is that I'm not much of a traditional breakfast eater, and in the morning usually eat fruit and yogurt, or yogurt and fruit with a little sprinkle of cereal, or bread and cheese, or rye toast and peanut butter, or sometimes simply leftovers (soup is best).

For the person who dips biscuits in tea, the type of biscuits mentioned are considered cookies in the USA.

And now a question about Moravian cookies (yum). Very thin (around 1/8 inch), molasses-spice cookies. How did that start instead of just making a thicker cookie. I've never made them, so I guess they don't have much levening ingredients. Good with a cup of tea.

By the way, I did have a biscuit with lunch thanks to KFC. Should have gone to Biscuitville, because traffic to/from KFC was bad.

In the USA, at least where I live (maybe another regionalism?), some cookies are called &quot;biscuits&quot;--the ones that are cooked twice (hence the name) and have a dry texture and usually are in the form of slices from a loaf, which are then baked again. They're called &quot;biscotti&quot; in Italian, but calling them &quot;bicotti&quot; when speaking English is a slight affectation, so they're &quot;biscuits&quot; in English, and many people dunk them in tea, coffiee, milk, etc.

Neil, the gravy you describe: &quot;I was intrigued by the sausage gravy, which I found to be a sort of glutinous white sauce&quot; is definitely a commercial cream sauce, as Ira says. Correctly made, this foodstuff is &quot;gravy of the gods.&quot; It is a bechamel sauce, the roux for which is made with the sausage grease and drippings and equal parts flour and cornmeal. Heavy cream, a bit of water, and two tablespoons of strong coffee (for red-eye variety), lots of pepper and salt seasoning, and break about half your sausage back into the sauce. Spoon over split biscuits, watch them reappear on your hips. Heavenly!

cmt, where do you live? I have never heard of biscotti being called biscuits anywhere that I have traveled in the US (mostly east and west coast though.) And it is really odd that you have never even heard of the soft biscuits that we've discussed in this thread. I do believe you, but I think your expereince must be pretty unique.

&lt;&lt;They're called &quot;biscotti&quot; in Italian, but calling them &quot;bicotti&quot; [sic] when speaking English is a slight affectation, so they're &quot;biscuits&quot; in English, and many people dunk them in tea, coffiee, milk, etc.&gt;&gt;

Not where I live. Never have been called otherwise. These are <i>always</i> known as biscotti, and have no real relation to the soft-baked American biscuit spoken of here aside from being derivatives of the same root word.

I am mostly from the Midwest -- at least my relatives were for a long time and I grew up there, although have lived in California and Wash DC as an adult -- and I have never heard of anyone referring to the Italian biscotti as a biscuit, although you would never see those until the last few years and they got trendy in Starbucks, etc. I'm sure they were around in Italian neighborhoods of big cities, but not anywhere I lived in the Midwest.

However, I will agree with cmt on the biscuit thing. I would say this is very regional, not some common American dish. I have never been served nor eaten biscuits and gravy, and I don't think I've ever seen it, either (except maybe some commerical on TV). I thought this was just a Southern dish. I have heard of biscuits a little more and I think my mother made them a couple times a year, but just as a variation on a roll. I've certainly seen them and know what they are. My family on both sides is German, and sometimes they'd make dumplings, but I don't think biscuits were common. Gravy is just something you put on mashed potatoes in my family.

I make biscuits myself a couple times a year, at least something I think of as biscuits, which is what is often called shortcake and you pile strawberries and whipped cream on top in summer. But this is more a biscuity-y recipe and not those spongecake things you can buy pre-made in the supermarket. I just use a recipe on the Bisquik box for that and I think they call it biscuits. I love Bisquik, it makes it so easy.

Suki, I think David's &quot;dole-mole&quot; is referring to someone receiving unemployment benefits in the UK.

Now for biscuits, you can't beat a digestive, bourbon cream or jammy dodger...