Lost Recipes: These early 20th century biscuits could convince you to skip the cans (2024)

FAQs

What were the biscuits during the Civil War? ›

During the Civil War one of the most common meals for soldiers was a cracker-like food called hardtack. Hardtack is made from flour, water, and salt. It could last a long time- there is even hard tack from the Civil War in the museum at Manassas National Battlefield Park today!

The earliest surviving example of a biscuit is from 1784, and it is a ship's biscuit. They were renowned for their inedibility, and were so indestructible that some sailors used them as postcards.

It's so important to press your cutter down firmly, never twisting. If you twist your cutter, what you're doing is essentially sealing the edges of your biscuits which will prevent them from rising.

Beaten biscuits are a Southern food from the United States, dating from the 19th century. They differ from regular American soft-dough biscuits in that they are more like hardtack. In New England they are called "sea biscuits", as they were staples aboard whaling ships.

Food for the Troops

While previously, soldiers relied on dried foods like hardtack and salted pork that lacked nutrition, starting in the Civil War canned goods provided a more balanced diet.

The conflict also popularized other canned goods, such as canned beef from Chicago and Gilbert Van Camp's canned fruits, vegetables, and pork and beans from Indianapolis, both of whom secured lucrative contracts to supply food for the Union Army.

The biscuit was preserved by survivors of the sinking in 1912. It was part of a survival kit in one of the Titanic's lifeboats. It is a Spillers and Bakers 'Pilot' biscuit and was wrapped by the survivor in an envelope, which it has remained in ever since.

As the world's leading biscuit brand, Parle-G has become more than just a product; it represents cherished memories and a taste that transcends generations.

Bread is generally healthier than biscuits. A slice of plain sourdough bread has about half the calories of one biscuit. Sourdough bread also contains little to no sugar and fat. Whole grain and whole wheat bread varieties also have increased nutritional value compared to white bread and biscuits.

Biscuit recipes tend to be egg-free, this makes them drier and the lack of protein to bind the mix helps achieve that crumbly texture. For super light, crumbly biscuits try grating or pushing the yolks of hard-boiled eggs through a sieve into the biscuit dough.

Do you put egg wash on biscuits? ›

Egg washes are used to brush on pastries, breads, pie crusts, biscuits, scones and more before baking them so they bake up with a beautiful, bright, golden brown finish. Learn how to make a simple egg wash to get that beautiful finish on your baked goods!

Ovens set to 350 or even 400 degrees heat too slowly and cause the fat inside the dough to melt before rising to the dough's full potential. Finally, higher heat will generate more caramelization from the butter on top of the biscuits, leaving you with a beautifully golden crust.

Drop biscuits, or so-called “emergency biscuits,” were first noted in the Boston Cooking School Cookbook in 1896. It's an appropriate name because they can be made in a hurry, as the dough is dropped from the spoon onto the pan, rather than rolled or cut.

Beaten biscuits became easier to make with the invention of the biscuit brake. A biscuit brake has hand-cranked rollers mounted to wood or marble. The dough is repeatedly fed between the rollers to emulate the beating process.

The Old French word bescuit is derived from the Latin words bis (twice) and coquere, coctus (to cook, cooked), and, hence, means "twice-cooked". This is because biscuits were originally cooked in a twofold process: first baked, and then dried out in a slow oven.

Hardtack was the staple and each man was given ten biscuits a day. Hardtack was a three by three inch, sometimes a little larger, biscuit made with flour and water, no salt. I have the recipe from the Bent's Biscuit Company who made hardtack during the Civil War.

So, while biscuits were certainly baked in Northern kitchens, they didn't replace bread as the carbohydrate of choice. In the South, by contrast, the available flour was milled from low-protein soft wheat, which lacks the protein content necessary to make great bread but is the ideal flour for biscuits.

Early hard biscuits (United States: cookies) were derived from a simple, storable version of bread. The word "biscuit" itself originates from the medieval Latin word biscoctus, meaning "twice-cooked".

The ship's biscuit was an important part of the sailor's sea diet before the introduction of canned foods. Long journeys at sea meant food needed to be able to survive the journey. One solution to this was the ship's biscuit - also known as hard tack.