Ski, I never said I hadn't heard of soft biscuits, and in fact in an earlier post I listed them as one of the three types of things I call "biscuits." I just said I never saw or ate them with gravy and never hear people talking about eating them that way. I knew them as something that was eaten hot with butter.

Biscotti were extremely common when I was growing up, and they are available in any supermarket. My grandparents were born in Italy, and I knew what "biscotti" were, but when speaking English, it seemed the proper word woould be biscuits. It seems a little odd to me insert an Italian word into an American English sentence--not quite "broken" English, but just odd. When they were a common item, they were biscuits. It seems that when they became trendy and exotic and expensive, they became "biscotti" to people with no Italian ancestry who buy them as a fancy sophisticated food item. What is really weird is when some people called a SINGLE biscuit or biscotto "A biscotti"! Obviously,"biscotti" is a plural word, so you eat "one biscotto" or "two or many biscotti." (Or, to make things easier, you just eat Italian style biscuits.)

P.S. Live in NJ. Early childhood in Brooklyn, NY, and southeastern PA.

Well, down here in biscuit 'n gravy country, biscotti just showed up in the recent past - in trendy shops. Starbucks has taken them "mainstream".

I've never heard of those crunchy twice baked thingies ever referred to as biscuits.

Of course, tacos were a novelty too in 1972!

Oh you poor people, you haven't tried my grandmothers drop bisquits. You have to have them with butter and apple butter and especially on a cold Autumn afternoon with hot cider or hot chocolate.

Grandma Urchin's Drop Bisquits:

2 cups All-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening
1 cup milk


Combine flour, baking powder, and salt, then cut in shortening with a fork until the dough is course. Add milk slowly, stirring only until dry ingredients are moistened.

Drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees until light golden brown.

Yes, mvor, I deduced that. The Bob Dole thing was just funny, I thought. David seems to be a human thesaurus when it comes to British slang!

Christine, I agree that 30 or 40 years ago biscuits and gravy was mostly confined to the South. But biscuits could be found most everywhere. And I like Bisquick too. I make Belgian waffles ever Sunday using the recipe on the box, and they're quite good.

I obviously have way too much time on my hands in work today!

cmt - southeastern PA, me too! I do remember you listing biscuits as one of your three categories, but that was yesterday. I had forgotten that.

You make an interesting point about growing up with biscotti when they were truly only something you would find in an Italian home (well, at least I know that they weren't common in the Irish/German home I grew up in.)I can see where one might Anglicize the pronunciation in those circumstances.

I walked into a coffee shop in Vermont during the '96 presidential campaign and found them selling sandwiches named after various political figures. "Dole on a roll" was advertised as containing "aged cheese, and lots of ham".

Ha! I imagine it had a thick crust.

and quick rising yeast...

biscotti were given to me by an Italian friend who told me to dunk them in my coffee.

Warning..Do not butter your Weetabix because people will look at you strangely. ; )

Scones...Tea and Sympathy New York city. And waffles...real hot Belgian ones from a street kiosk in Brugge with a cup of coffee. Yummmm...

Living in the SF Bay Area all my life we had biscotti, but as cmt states, a single one would be biscotto, although I guess because everyone always ate more than one the singular was never used, LOL. Dipped in coffee, dipped in wine, little ones dipped them in their milk (yuck). Much later they did become a gourmet item so to speak and consequently very expensive. My grandmother baked them all the time. I use to but haven't in ages.

Biscuits is something that I think of as different than dinner rolls. And have certainly had biscuits made from Bisquick. I had an aunt by marriage from Nebraska that prepared them often. Someone correct me if I am wrong but biscuits do not have yeast in them. I never had them with gravy over them, just pipping hot with butter.

Neil's comments about the white gravy like his mother use to put on cauliflower. That made me laugh and at the same time want to gag. My mother fixed that horrible cauliflower with that disgusting sauce. She called it white sauce. Nastiest dish you ever tasted, LOL. And I had an aunt that used that same dreadful sauce on overcooked celery. The horrors that youngsters have to live through!!! And don't even get me started on those dreadful peas. I still shudder about those nasty vegtables.

For the benefit of those who's last chance of a decent biscuit and cup of tea was tipped in Boston Harbour two hundred years ago; here is a website dedicated to proper tea and biscuits. It also gives more of an insight into the British character than any number of guide books:

http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/

Custard monster?

I wonder what the backstory on your screen name might be.

I like custard.

Do you merkins know what custard is?

Well, in my neck of the world it's an egg based pudding.

I wondered if, for you, it's ice cream.

But, I DON'T know what a merkin is :-)

OMG. If a "merkin" is what I just found when I googled the word, you probably should be a bit more careful.

merkin = American.

custard = milk and egg mixture, or glop as my father referred to it when my (British) mother served it when I was growing up.

Notice that Passepartout posed this question and never returned? Interesting discussion anyway. In the risk of losing all credibility on gastronomic matters, I must confess that my favorite biscuits came from the old Roy Rogers restaurants.

Well, make it 'properly' and custard is an egg and milk mixture, with varying degrees of setting deciding whether it's 'crème anglaise' or a more or less solid invalid food (and/or tart filling): but for Brits with plebeian tastes, it has to be Bird's Custard Powder (with skin) on top of a proper steamed pudding of some sort. Or else winter isn't worth living through (talking of which, when IS autumn going to start? This warmth ain't natcheral).