That’s not a biscuit

A coworker once asked me what a biscuit was to an American. I found it hard to explain since biscuits, as I know them, are rare in Britain. When you start describing a biscuit, people are quick to say, “Oh, you mean a scone.” No, I mean a biscuit. Have you ever seen a scone with a big piece of greasy fried chicken next to it? I didn’t think so.

The differences between biscuits in the UK and US:

When I think of the word “biscuit” I think of the dog biscuit or the savory biscuit served with breakfast or dinner. And sometimes lunch.

Before living in the UK, I never associated it as a sweet treat.  Unless it was a biscuit at Bob Evans because those are just amazing with honey. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though.

Biscuits in the UK are essentially cookies. A popular biscuit is the digestive which I always thought sounded wrong. They are semi-sweet, hard biscuits and the term “digestive” came from the belief that the baking soda in them helped with digestion. This has since been proven untrue.

The plain, ol’ regular digestives taste a bit like graham crackers but you can find them in all sorts of varieties – plain, caramel, chocolate, mint, orange.  The digestive is popular with tea drinkers because they are perfect for dunking. Other popular biscuits are Rich Tea, Jammy Dodgers, Hob Nobs, Bourbon,  Malted Milk and shortbread. To find the perfect biscuit for you, check out Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down for reviews of many of the biscuits on offer in Britain.

Just to confuse you further, if you’re looking for a big, soft chocolate chip cookie, those are called cookies.

Even the Brits agree that chocolate chip biscuit just doesn’t sound right.

A biscuit in North America is a small formation of bread made with baking soda rather than yeast. There is no need to let the biscuit dough rise before baking. Once baked, the biscuits are soft and fluffy on the inside. Similar to the scone, the biscuit can be topped with jam or honey.  I won’t be going into scones because…well, I just don’t have the energy to tackle the history of scones (and whether the correct pronounciation of scone rhymes with “phone” or “gone”). I will say that biscuits in the US are slightly different, though scones do exist over there – mostly overpriced versions in Starbucks.

The biscuit has a strong presence in the South. These biscuits are usually made with buttermilk and served as a side dish. You’ve got your biscuits with honey, jam, butter, or syrup. You’ve also got your biscuits with a side of sausage gravy. You can top your biscuit with egg and bacon a la fast food chains.

There are a few key establishments that have perfected the use of the biscuit:

Tudor’s Biscuit World has locations across West Virginia (with a few in Kentucky and Ohio). I have never been but I am told that you can get a biscuit sandwich the size of your head. Have a look at the menu – you can’t go wrong with a hashbrown and cheese smushed between a biscuit. And how fun would it be to order “One Tootie, one Duke…no scratch that, make it a Peppi and a Thundering Herd to go, please.”

KFC and Popeyes, to name a few of the fast food chicken restaurants, include warm, buttery biscuits with the meal deals and are the perfect complement to fried chicken.

Sadly, KFC in the UK does not serve biscuits. It also doesn’t serve potato wedges. It’s a crying shame.

Red Lobster. While I wouldn’t choose this establishment for seafood, I could be convinced to go there for the cheesy garlic biscuits. Red Lobster serves 1.1 million of these bad boys a day. The Cheddar Bay Biscuit recipe is a secret, but you can find some pretty good attempts on the web. In fact, Bisquick does the job nicely and what’s even better? Bisquick is sold in the UK.

And last but certainly not least: the Chick-Fil-A Chicken Biscuit. 

Nothing but a biscuit and piece of boneless fried chicken. It’s the simple things in life…