TOliver wrote:
> "Kate Dicey" wrote...
>
>>Opinicus wrote:
>>
>>
>>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biscuit
>>>
>>>What do *you* think it is and why?
>>>
>>
>>Biscuits are thin, flat, and vary from crisp to hard.
>
>
> Here writes a lady from the benighted kitchens - either great drafty halls
> or tiny niches stolen from a trailer house ("mobile home")of the - of the
> Scuttled H'aisles who has never met the grandest of pleasures, the ethereal
> and ephemeral pleasures of "Hot Biscuits", reared as she seems to have been
> on the British appraoch, at best little more than sweetened, flavored
> hardtack/ship's biscuit, baked to last for an eternity or a voyage to the
> Indies.
>
>
>
>>Sweet, pain, or savoury, take your pick!
>
>
> There's "Biscuitry Fromagic" as earlier mentioned, but otherwise, biscuits
> are to be split, buttered and laden with strange or ordinary flavors from
> cane syrup vis marmalades up through the haughtiest of berry compotes, but
> not ignoring gravy along the way.
>
>
>>Cookies are thicker and softer, with a slightly chewy texture.
>>Scones are light and fluffy in texture, and either oven baked or baked on
>>a girdle.
>
>
> Scones light? Lighter'n what? Door Stops? ....And served near chilled to
> boot, the temperature of an Erse' parlor, which even smoky with peat would
> give you a bad case of chillbains if not frostbite on the side away from the
> dank almost heatless glow of the hearth.

Dunno where *you've* had scones, but in this house they are usually
light enough that you need a butterfly net to catch them and come served
hot of the girdle or fresh out of the oven.

My good old Scots granny taught me to make girdle scones. For the very
best ones all you need is a heap of self raising flour in a bowl, a
pinch of salt, a little sugar, and enough full cream milk just on the
turn to make a soft but handleable dough. Mix them up with an old
kitchen knife, pat them out into a round about 3/4" thick, cut into
wedges and cook on a well floured girdle over a medium flame. Serve as
they come off the girdle, with home made raspberry jam and whipped cream.

Any left should be split and fried along with the bacon and black
pudding for breakfast.

A good peat fire with burn hot and slow and almost smokeless. Gives a
very even heat for cooking the oatcakes.

>>And stottie cake is a oven bottom baked bread (traditionally turned over
>>half way through cooking) with yeast, and the best thing in the world for
>>making sandwiches! Oh, except Chelsea buns...
>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stottie_cake
>>--
>
>
> I'll try it, although the brief time required to produce grand biscuits
> makes longer work hard to justify.
>
You'll need a stone based oven and a long peel to make proper stottie
cakes. Oh, and home boiled ham and proper pease puddin'.

--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
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