Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:
>
>
> Biscuits in England and Scotland are never soft; if they don't go crunch
> they're cakes. That's why I was wondering what the heck "cookie" actually
> means, it seems to cover a range of things we wouldn't think of having a
> common name for.
>
>

http://whatscookingamerica.net/Histo...kieHistory.htm

"In America, a cookie is described as a thin, sweet, usually small cake.
By definition, a cookie can be any of a variety of hand-held,
flour-based sweet cakes, either crisp or soft. Each country has its own
word for "cookie." What we know as cookies are called biscuits in
England and Australia, in Spain they're galletas, Germans call them keks
or kels, and in Italy there are several names to identify various forms
of cookies including amaretti and biscotti, and so on. The name cookie
is derived from the Dutch word koekje, meaning "small or little cake."
Biscuit comes from the Latin word bis coctum, which means, “twice
baked.” According to culinary historians, the first historic record of
cookies was their use as test cakes. A small amount of cake batter was
baked to test the oven temperature. "


>
>
>>In the historical cookbooks at:
>>http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/
>>Housekeeping in Old Virginia
>>By Marion Fontaine Cabell Tyree
>>Richmond, VA: J.W. Randolph & English, 1878
>>TEA CAKES [...two very plain recipes...]
>
>
> These sound much more like something that could have been made in early
> 19th century Scotland. Try F. Marian McNeill's "The Scots Kitchen".
>


F. Marian McNeill has Mrs. Dalgairns recipe for The Queen's Tea Cakes.
That is what sent me to exploring Mrs. Dalgairns cookbook.