Islanddawn wrote:

nordmann wrote:

Ah one of my favourite from childhood, Iced Vovos! Eat the marshmallow and jam off and then chuck the rest of the biscuit away.  They're Australian as far as I know.

What you are admiring there is the humble Mikado, designed by James McCarthy, chief confectionery innovator of the then Jacob's Biscuit Company in Dublin in the early 1930s. Jimmy left behind a pretty impressive record of biscuit and bar designs, many still going strong and copied throughout the world.

Mind you, if the Australians appropriated it and flogged it as their very own Iced Vovos, they were simply emulating some other great confectionery thefts that mark the 20th century out as one of the vilest in the history of global confectionery conflict. The Norwegians have perfected the villainy to a fine art, even nicking the pack designs and fonts, and they're still at it.

A few examples.







Norwegians, as with your Ozzie Vovo, really believe all the above are local inventions.

Australian Iced Vovos were first branded and registered in 1906. An Australian icon.

The thlock pithens! So McCarthy was the thief! Never trusted that sod after the fig rolls thing anyway!

They'll have to take his statue down now in Bishop Street. Or maybe not - Valeo Foods Ltd, who now run the Jacob's brands, claim that the Mikado has been a children's party staple since the 1880s. McCarthy's been given credit for something they were already producing, it seems, and even before the Vovo too - so Arnott isn't off the hook either.

I'm telling you - it's a vicious and cut-throat world, that confectionery one. A right den of iniquity.

Well, the company producing them is owned by Kraft, who have already ruined Cadbury's chocolate, so all of these are likely to have the coatings replaced with American pseudo-chocolate in future.

Errr ... here's an advert for both Mikado and Iced VoVo biscuits made by Aulsebrook's Biscuits which appeared in 'The Star' (Sydney, Australia) 21 November 1905 p4:



The Aulsebrook biscuit company were originally from New Zealand (established there in the 1860s) which moved to Australia about 1890. They were making Iced VoVos at least until 1908.

Another company that were supposedly making Iced VoVos around 1900 was Hardman Biscuits (of Sydney) which had been started by the Hardman brothers after they'd emigrated from England in the 1850s. The Hardmann Biscuit Company was eventually bought by Arnotts, but that seems to have been much later in the 1940s.

And an Arnott's advert from 'The Mercury', 14 June 1904, again mentioning with both VoVos and Mikados:



see:

https://longwhitekid.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/iced-vovos-who-did-it-first/


But I believe Jacob's Biscuits (established in Ireland since 1851) started producing the Mikado biscuit in about 1885 ... which is when all things Japanese were in vogue in Britain (both the Japanese Cultural Exhibition in London, and the debut of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera 'The Mikado', were in 1885).

The Vovo looks like a Mikado that's been run over by a steamroller. Maybe gravity is stronger in the Southern Hemisphere. Or maybe this was how they got round the patenting law.

McCarthy was a leading light in the prestigious Rathmines and Rathgar Operatic Society, which often does G&S's The Mikado even today. Though that's beside the point now that we know he was just another whose confections obviously extended to the verbal.

If I find out they nicked this one I'll be desperately disappointed. This was what one expected from the granny after a trip into town to do the shopping, along with a green-ink biro (something I never understood, though enough of my hand written literature from the period survives to indicate that it persevered for years).

I wonder if there are any other old hippies out there who remember Frank Zappa'a immortal line: "the crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe"? In younger and happier days, I always argued that "apostrophe" here did not refer to the irritating punctuation mark (which has caused so much ill-feeling over the years, often between otherwise good friends), but to the exclamatory figure of speech. The meaning of "crux of the biscuit", however, has always eluded me.

I was amazed that this is still being discussed:

https://www.quora.com/What-does-this-mean-The-crux-of-the-biscuit-is-in-the-apostrophe

Not exactly a biscuit, but a Mikado nonetheless - any 2-8-2 steam loco
"The wheel arrangement name "Mikado" originated from a group of Japanese type 9700 2-8-2 locomotives that were built by Baldwin Locomotive Works for the 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge Nippon Railway of Japan in 1897. In the 19th century, the Emperor of Japan was often referred to as "the Mikado" in English. Also, the Gilbert and Sullivan opera The Mikado had premiered in 1885 and achieved great popularity in both Britain and America." as wiki would misleadia. Biscuits, along with tea, are required to be placed on the buffer beam at Raven Square station for any arriving train's crew, but the digestive is most favoured if there is a choice.

In the biscuit war scene, there is alarm that the Cafe Noir biscuit recipe has changed - and not available in any taste in my area now. McVities have Hobnobs galore have much to answer for tampering with this small treat. One more thing to add to  a growing list of my delights of fading memory

Christmas biscuits everywhere - a Dutch type sold by Tescos ought be served on top of a steaming cup of coffee to be fully appreciated. I am greatly tempted to try it just to get a selection of remarks. I have a guest coming tomorrow for coffee who says she had better not be offered Family Circle biscuits. What on earth are they? Too late to rush and get some just to be annoying.

I was behind a lady in the M&S Food Hall today and she had ten tins of shortbread in her trolley. Nothing else. The tins all featured a large stag and two members of his family (see below). Either someone with an untreated eating disorder, or she had completed all her Christmas present shopping at one fell swoop.




"Family Circle" biscuits! Good grief they are considered naff even in Bootle!  But the "Rover" assortment is even worse: if you wish to shock your friends, get a tin of these, Priscilla - and hand them round from the tin.

However, I have been reliably informed that Family Circle vintage tins are now a collector's item: they ae sold on EBay!





EDIT: I see it says 1kg /2.2ibs on the tin above. I bet one with just the weight of biscuits in pounds and ounces would be more valuable.

If you have this biscuit tin, it is worth a fair bit of money (£300). It is the "rude" Huntley and Palmer Ginger Nuts tin. You have to open link to see tin - it won't copy.

http://severnbeachantiques.com/famous-rare-1980-huntley-and-palmer-rude-garden-party-ginger-nuts-tin

Surely the acme of biscuit offence would be to offer her a plate of assorted broken ones? (You used to be able to buy these cheap) - or perhaps a packet (opened, natch) of Tesco basics digestives?

Gilgamesh of Uruk wrote:

Surely the acme of biscuit offence would be to offer her a plate of assorted broken ones? (You used to be able to buy these cheap) - or perhaps a packet (opened, natch) of Tesco basics digestives?

A family tale, oft repeated at gatherings:-

My great uncle was in the habit of going into the Co-op on the way home from primary school to buy broken biscuits but one day the conversation went thus:

Wee Bob; "A ha'penny's  worth of broken biscuits please ".

Shop assistant; "Sorry son, we've none today, it's the breaker's day off".

Boom, Boom.

ferval wrote:

Gilgamesh of Uruk wrote:

Surely the acme of biscuit offence would be to offer her a plate of assorted broken ones? (You used to be able to buy these cheap) - or perhaps a packet (opened, natch) of Tesco basics digestives?

A family tale, oft repeated at gatherings:-

My great uncle was in the habit of going into the Co-op on the way home from primary school to buy broken biscuits but one day the conversation went thus:

Wee Bob; "A ha'penny's  worth of broken biscuits please ".

Shop assistant; "Sorry son, we've none today, it's the breaker's day off".

Boom, Boom.

Reminds me of the hotel my stepfather stayed at once when he went to an away match in - shall we say Norfolk? - . When he asked for toast at breakfast, he was told "The girl who knows the recipe does'nt work on Sundays".

Marie Biscuits were named after the Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna, the wife of Prince Alfred, Queen Victoria's son.

FL wrote:

Marie Biscuits were named after the Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna, the wife of Prince Alfred, Queen Victoria's son.

Except in Ireland where Peek Freans products, along with most other English goods, were being boycotted in the mid 1870s. Ireland was in the middle of yet another famine - one that peaked in 1879 and which is generally forgotten these days - and yet again the British political reaction had been simply to raise local duties on exportable foodstuff (turning a famine into potential genocide so the British importers could keep their profit margins healthy). However this time the Irish lower classes, left with rotten potatoes and gruel to eat, responded by refusing to buy any English products dumped on the depressed market, a campaign organised by the newly instituted "Land League", the forerunner to the Irish Independence Party which ultimately designed the new state in the 1920s.  The franchised producer of "Marie" biscuits, Jacobs, decided it best therefore to re-christen them "Marietta" - a name not associated with any royal family, and especially Big Vic's brood, so the middle classes could continue snacking without feeling guilty.


Still popular today ...

I have nearly finished my Queer City: Gay London From the Romans to the Present Day, Peter Ackroyd's excellent new offering: it has been a fascinating read, sometimes funny, more often very sad. This snippet, however, in the final chapter did make me laugh:

"...the Wolfenden Committee was established in 1954 to inquire into the legal status of homosexual acts. The committee comprised the great and the good, but they were neither conventionally 'liberal' nor unprudish in their social attitudes. For the sake of the ladies present at the proceedings, homosexuals were known as Huntleys and prostitutes as Palmers after the well-known firm of biscuit makers."

One wonders what was served with the tea during breaks in the committee's deliberations.

Temperance wrote:

I have nearly finished my Queer City: Gay London From the Romans to the Present Day, Peter Ackroyd's excellent new offering: it has been a fascinating read, sometimes funny, more often very sad. This snippet, however, in the final chapter did make me laugh:

"...the Wolfenden Committee was established in 1954 to inquire into the legal status of homosexual acts. The committee comprised the great and the good, but they were neither conventionally 'liberal' nor unprudish in their social attitudes. For the sake of the ladies present at the proceedings, homosexuals were known as Huntleys and prostitutes as Palmers after the well-known firm of biscuit makers."

One wonders what was served with the tea during breaks in the committee's deliberations.

and

Came across this while perusing on this day in history on wiki:

Biscuit Eaters



Bucellarii (the Latin plural of Bucellarius; literally "biscuit–eater", Greek: Βουκελλάριοι) is a term for a unit of soldiers in the late Roman and Byzantine empire, that were not supported by the state but rather by some individual such as a general or governor, in essence being his "household troops".
These units were generally quite small, but, especially during the many civil wars, they could grow to number several thousand men. In effect, the bucellarii were small private armies equipped and paid by wealthy influential people. As such they were quite often better trained and equipped, not to mention motivated, than the regular soldiers of the time. In the 6th century, Belisarius, during his wars on behalf of Justinian, employed as many as 7,000 bucellarii. By this time, the bucellarii were well integrated into the main Roman army, and soon the term came to be applied indiscriminately to well-equipped cavalry troops. Thus, in the 7th century, when the military recruitment areas formed the basis for the Theme system, one of the first themata was that of the Boukellariōn, in the area of Paphlagonia and Galatia, with its capital at Ankara.

There was a programme about biscuits on BBC Radio 4 this week. It was not as good as this thread - our survey was much more comprehensive -  and I'm sure the BBC pinched a lot of ideas from us!! The origin of the biscuit name "Jammy Dodger" was discussed - apparently named after the Beano character, Roger the Dodger. Jammy, as well as meaning jammy (as in jam), also means "lucky", of course. I can't remember whether we discussed this here...



Will try to find an iPlayer link.







A Jammy Dodger

The Foods of England website says that the Jammie Dodger is "A ring of shortcake biscuit adhered to a disc of shortcake biscuit with a very dense jam-like substance so that the filling displays through the hole in the upper ring, very similar to one form of the traditional German Spitzbuben".

Preposterous ... they'll be claiming the British Royal Family is of German ancestry next!

Strictly 'Jammie Dodger' is a proprietary brand name owned exclusively by Burton's of Blackpool and so any similar biscuits by other makers are supposed to call their products 'jam rings' or something like that.

These are proper Burton's Jammie Dodgers with their distictive heart-shaped hole:

This is a serious point you have raised, MM. Is a Jammy Dodger with a round hole not an authentic Jammy Dodger then?  You will note that the Dodger displayed on the lid of the Rover Assorted BIscuits Selection (see above) has a round hole. The heart-shaped hole came later, I think - another example of a post-modern abomination, as is the awful spelling "jammie" rather than "jammy". But who knows - everything is confusing these days, even biscuits.

The French have got in on the act I see. From the discredited Wiki website:


Similar biscuits are produced by other manufacturers. A version of this biscuit is made in France under the name Gateaux Sables Nappage Fraise by Pat'Boul de Provence. 


Let us hope that, post-Brexit (if that isn't an oxymoron), the production of the French copy of the British Jammy Dodger will cease. I shall raise the issue with our local candidate for the European Parliament election (if we've got one, that is, and if he or she ever shows up on my doorstep).

I note the final paragraph of my message - which contained the "B"-word (Brexit) has not appeared - automatic censor? I suppose we must all be very careful these days about what we say - even in jests about biscuits.

These imposters are definitely not Burton's Jammie Dodgers having substituted the heart for a maple leaf.



Designed to celebrate Canada's federation and independence on 1 July 1867, Canada Day was formerly known as 'Dominion Day' until 1982. Intended for a public holiday in midsummer those cookies look far too Christmassy to me.


Here's an historic biscuit for a date which hasn't yet happened (and probably won't):




Sales of this Norwegian company's products have received a boost over the last couple of years due to all the free subliminal advertising:




And others have jumped on the bandwagon:



P.S. Temp, re the 'automatic censor' issue. Was the thing that hasn't appeared something which was cut and pasted from Wiki or was it something which you had written separately?

P.P.S. This is a test - Brexit biscuit.

I wrote it, Vizzer. Let's see it appears here. Following my bit from Wiki about the French version of Le Dodger Jammy, I wrote:



Let us hope that, post-Brexit (if that isn't an oxymoron), the production of the French copy of the British Jammy Dodger will cease. I shall raise the issue with our local candidate for the European Parliament election (if we've got one, that is, and if he or she ever shows up on my doorstep).

Ah, the silly Brexit remark has appeared. I hope no offence has been given to anyone, whatever his or her political persuasion, or biscuit preference.

The Canadian JDs look very nice. I'll allow them.

Queen Victoria, her Prince Consort Albert, and others of the 19th century royal family have numerous cakes, tarts, puddings and desserts named after them. However in the early 1860s, when Huntley and Palmers approached Her Majesty asking permission to name their new, slightly buttery, semi-sweet biscuit after her, she declined, probably thinking it rather vulgar to have her name emblazoned across common biscuit tins and commercial advertising hoardings. But mindful of the need to keep the Queen in the public eye after her withdrawal from society following the recent death of her beloved Albert, palace officials suggested that instead the company might consider naming the biscuit after her favourite home on the Isle of Wight, Osborne House. And so it came to be that Osbornes eventually became one of the most popular English biscuits in the late 19th century - keeping Victoria's presence alive whilst she herself was rarely seen, and at the same time and for years to come, earning a fortune for Huntly and Palmers. By 1914 the principal Huntley and Palmers factory, located in Reading (and then the largest biscuit factory in the world), was producing more Osbornes than any other type of biscuit, while copies bearing the same name were being made by other biscuit companies - both licesnsed subsidiaries and complete rivals - in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.


A 1920s biscuit tin in the shape of an Osborne biscuit.

I'm so glad this thread has reappeared: UK biscuits are an important topic, and the study of their history has been sadly neglected in the universities.

That venerable organ, The Sun newspaper, has recently conducted a poll to ascertain our nation's favourite biscuit. The results have surprised me. Where is the plain Hobnob? The chocolate Hobnob (the UK's fifth favourite biscuit, at least according to the poll) is a strange hybrid and is considered in superior circles to be a particularly vulgar biscuit. I suspect vote rigging.

Well that was from The Sun ... so what do you expect?

By the way, Temp, in November 2016, you wrote:

Temperance wrote:

They do still make Wagon Wheels. I love this tin: I really want one (the tin, not a biscuit):

So you might like this site Ephemera Society of Australia - Biscuit tins:






... that last one is a Huntley and Palmers square tin, from the 1890s.

Nah - those tins are all a bit contrived. I really, really want a Wagon Wheel one.

Settling down to watch the new Borat Subsequent Moviefilm now...

But, MM, thank you for posting them!

How I long for the old days at Res His - don't we all?

Ah the things we miss...... McVitie   long made 'Lincoln Creams,'  our family favourite for decades. Then either someone in the factory died or retired and they lost the recipe - or more likely they tried to make them with cheaper ingredients and after a few  batches of pale, tasteless Lincoln biscuits with angry letters from the suburbs (and muddy estuary villages) they then disappeared for ever. Hardly a plain bikky on the shelves now, either they are stuffed with something gooey or are covered in chocolate, have nuts added or even more gross, all three. 
Very likely one can judge the the state of the nation by how its cooky crumbles and the quality of its biscuits.

This might make a useful area of research for a relevant Phd.

The Decline and Fall of the British Empire is indeed reflected in the sad recent history of our biscuits. As the once great British cookies crumbled, so did our Empire. Take Huntley and Palmers - the greatest biscuit manufacturers in the world during the Victorian era. By 1976, however, some dreadful European multinational called Danone, of, I believe, yoghurt fame, had taken them over.

We need to take back control of our biscuits!

A biscuit for dunking..............in champagne.




wiki:
Originating in Reims, Biscuit rose de Reims is a product of the Biscuits Fossier company. It is customary to dip the biscuit in champagne or red wine. The biscuit was created around 1690 in Reims. A baker wanted to make the most of the heat in the bread oven between the two batches, so he had the idea of creating a special dough; cooking it twice, which is where the name "biscuit" or "bis-cuit" meaning "cooked twice" in French. The biscuit initially was white. In order to add flavor to it, a pod of vanilla was introduced into the recipe. This vanilla left brown traces on the biscuit. In order to hide them, the baker decided to add a natural color based on cochineal, a scarlet dye, to disguise his mistake. From this sequence of events, the Biscuit Rose de Reims was born.

Deleted - not appropriate at this time.

In the 18th century, despite the huge surge in the popularity of tea, biscuits were very often the accompaniment for wine, port, sherry, madeira, or as Trike has said, champagne. They were nibbled circumspectly when playing cards, discreetly at the opera, and perhaps more flirtatiously, at society soirées. Such biscuits were not yet factory-made and packaged for mass consumption; Joseph Huntley formed the company that would later become Huntley & Palmers in 1822, Jacob's Biscuits was founded in 1851, Fox's Biscuits in 1853, Peek Freans in 1857 and Tunnock's in 1890. In the 18th century if you wanted biscuits to go with your cup of tea or glass of sherry, you generally had to make them yourself, or as many grand houses did, employ your own confectioner responsible for producing all the biscuits, cakes, sweets, jellies, ornate iced sculptures and other fancy desserts.

Such experts did not come cheap although they were often considered essential for any family with serious social aspirations. The spendthrift Duke of Portland, advised by his accountant that he faced ruin if he did not cut down on his expenses, refused to part with his Italian confectioner, "Good God", the Duke protested, "mayn't a man have a biscuit with his glass of sherry?" A cheaper alternative for the Duke (although admittedly still not without some expense) but one that was becoming increasingly possible, at least in larger towns and cities, was just to buy one's biscuits from a local specialist cake and biscuit maker. If one aspired to at least a certain rank, to offer one's guests biscuits that were clearly not professionally-made (whether that be professionally produced in-house and stamped with ones coat-of-arms, or just bought in, again perfectly made to order, from the local specialist biscuit-maker) was a social faux pas. To present your guests biscuits that were obviously just rustically home-made by your regular cook and the kitchen staff - rather than fabriqué à la maison par notre pâtisseur habituel - was a clear marker of one's inferior position down the social scale. Biscuits more Bennet than Bingley.

Nevertheless despite biscuit-making being generally conducted at home or by small local businesses, it seems there were numerous 'standard' designs of biscuit known across the country, probably fostered, at least in part in the latter half of the 18th century, by a sudden proliferation of cookbooks, some indeed specifically aimed at the commercial market. Specialist items of equipment, such as mechanical grinders/mixers, as well as biscuit stamps, moulds, rollers and cutters, were also increasingly available, thereby further allowing even the home cook to produce very professional-looking biscuits.



 

A Victorian roller stamp for producing biscuits. Note the words 'UNION' and 'WINE' and the cypher 'VR' for Victoria Regina, also the symbolic flowers of Ireland, England and Scotland, plus other fancy patriotic motifs such as the anchor to represent the Royal Navy. The Union biscuit was originally designed to commemorate the Acts of Union of 1801 and since the roller above also includes the word 'wine' perhaps these biscuits were intended to be consumed with wine during the loyal toasts at the end of a formal dinner. Union biscuits were still fashionable in the early twentieth century when Frederick Vine gave detailed instructions for making them in the second edition of his trade manual 'Biscuits for Bakers' (London, 1906):

Meles meles (27 Apr 2019) wrote:

The Foods of England website says that the Jammie Dodger is "A ring of shortcake biscuit adhered to a disc of shortcake biscuit with a very dense jam-like substance so that the filling displays through the hole in the upper ring, very similar to one form of the traditional German Spitzbuben".

Spitzbuben, which roughly translates as "rogues", "rascals", or "mischievous boys", are traditionally eaten around Christmas time in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Although there are local variations and some very closely related biscuits (eg Hildabrötchen or Linzer Plätzchen), the basic form is a layer of very dense jam sandwiched between two simple shortcake biscuits, with a little window cut out in the top one that exposes the jam, and then the whole is topped with a dusting of powdered sugar. They do look very like the modern British jammy dodger and seem to have come to Britain in the mid-nineteenth century when they were popularly known as Linzer, Deutsch or German biscuits (another of Prince Albert's influences perhaps). In the First World War however they fell victim to the mass-renaming of all things German - from German shepherd dogs to the Royal family - and were thereafter known as Empire biscuits, or sometimes, following the German invasion of Belgium, as Belgian biscuits. I've never encountered them but I believe Empire biscuits are still popular in Scotland and the north of England.

 
Traditional Spitzbuben ... and Jammy Dodgers made by Burton's of Blackpool.

Grocers' manuals, biscuit manufacturers' catalogues and advertisements in newspapers list German biscuits, and then after outbreak of war, Empire biscuits, but the first actual recipe I can find for a jam-sandwich biscuit with either name is this 1928 one for home cooks, by which time they had already acquired the modern iced top decorated with a glacé cherry, in addition to the dense jam filling. From the 'Western Daily Press' (a Bristol newspaper) 30 June 1928, p11:

Empire Biscuits. Take six ozs. flour, ozs. margarine, 1 teaspoonful ground cinnamon. 1 table spoon syrup, and a pinch of salt. Mix the dry ingredients. Heat the syrup and mix to stiff paste. "Roll out quite thinly and cut into rounds with a fancy cutter. Place on a baking tin and prick each biscuit with a fork. Bake in a moderate oven from 10 to 15 minutes until pale brown colour. When cold, place two biscuits together with a drop of jam between, and ice same as orange sandwich, only using warm water instead of the orange juice. Sprinkle the tops with a little pink sugar.


A modern Empire biscuit with jam in the middle and with a blob of icing and a glacé cherry on top.

Spitzbuben/Linzer/German biscuits started to become well-known in Britain towards the end of the nineteenth century however a similar fruity shortcake biscuit had already existed in Britain since the previous century; the toad-in-a-hole biscuit. These were made from little rounds of almond paste into which one or two candied cherries were pushed before they were baked, the almond paste then rising up to partially enclosed the pieces of fruit. Here's a recipe from Frederick Nutt's 'The Complete Confectioner' (1789), and note that by "dried cherries" I'm guessing he means candied cherries (similar to glacé cherries) or cherries that had been preserved in a sweet syrup.

No. 11. Toad-in-a-Hole Biscuits.
TAKE one pound of sweet, and one ounce and a half of bitter almonds, and pound them in a mortar very fine with water, then one pound and a quarter of Lisbon sugar, and mix it very well with the almonds: do not make it too thin, and remember there are no eggs in this; then put one sheet of paper on your wire, and some wafer paper on that, then take a spoon and make your biscuits round on the wafer paper, about the size of a half-crown piece; then put one or two dried cherries in the middle of them; and sift some powdered sugar over them, and put them in the oven, which must have a moderate heat, and when they come out, cut the wafer paper round them, but leave the paper at the bottom of them.

Here are some modern toad-in-a-hole biscuits made by the food historian Ivan Day according to Frederick Nutt's 1789 recipe:


Toad-in-a-hole biscuits.

In form these biscuits are similar to the British savoury dish of the same name made of meat or sausages baked in a Yorkshire pudding batter. Interestingly both dishes first appear at about the same time. The very first reference to toad-in-a-hole appears to be in 1769 as a meat-in-batter dish served at a dinner for the "Thursday's Club call'd the Royal Philosophers" (which was the Royal Society's semi-official dining club) held at the Mitre Tavern in London (where Johnson and Boswell also often dined). For the next ten years the Royal Philosophers enjoyed toad-in-a-hole several times a year alongside such delicacies as venison, fresh salmon, turbot and asparagus. Nevertheless on several occasions when he was recording the event's in the club's dinner books, the group's secretary, Josiah Colebrooke FRS, felt compelled to include an additional description such as "alias beef baked in a pudding" so obviously the term was not yet familiar to everyone. The first dictionary reference to the term occurs in Francis Grose's 'Provincial Glossary' (1787) which was a haphazard collection of forgotten proverbs and words gleaned from around rural England. Included in this glossary is a forgotten Norfolk dish called "Pudding Pye Doll" which Grose defined as being akin to "the dish called toad-in-a-hole, or meat boiled in a crust". Grose may well have learned about toad-in-a-hole direct from Colebrook - both were members of the London Society of Antiquaries and moved in the same social circles - again suggesting that the name originated in London shortly before 1770 and by the 1780s was still not widely known. The first printed recipe I can find for a dish with the name is this one from 'The English art of cookery, according to the present practice' by Richard Briggs (1788), which uses a piece beef in the batter (albeit a "veiney" piece) rather than the more modern use of sausages.

Toad in a Hole
MIX a pound of flour with a pint and a half of milk and four eggs into a batter put in a little salt beaten ginger and a little grated nutmeg put it into a deep dish that you intend to send it to table in take the veiney piece of beef sprinkle it with salt put it into the batter bake it two hours and send it up hot.

Most nineteenth century recipes for toad in the hole continue to use pieces of meat rather than sausages even when seemingly aimed at the less well off. Alexis Soyer in 'A Shilling Cookery for The People' (1845) uses pieces of beef or mutton, as does Charles Elme Francatelli in 'A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes' (1852) albeit that he suggests the cook use "6 d. or 1 s. worth of bits and pieces of any kind of meat, which are to be had cheapest at night when the day's sale is over". Meanwhile Mrs Beeton in 'The Book of Household Management' (1861) has a rather fine toad in the hole recipe using rump steak and mutton kidney. This, she confidently says, will give "a homely but savoury dish" that she reckons could serve 4-5 people for a just 1s 9d. Clearly nineteenth century toad in the hole, while slowly coming down the social scale from the the exalted heights of Royal Society dinners, still retained some pretensions. The use of cheap sausages in the dish only really become standard in the 1920s following the shortages and rationing of the First World War.

Of course it is extremely unlikely that the British hadn't enjoyed various cuts of meat baked in batter long before the 1760s but the amusing name seems to have only come into use at this time. Some have attributed the name to the way toads wait for their prey, partially buried in the earth, or it may reference the commonly believed 18th century phenomenon of live frogs or toads supposedly being found encased in stones and solid rock. Either way the entombed 'toads' that were baked in batter could be sausages, pieces of meat, small joints, whole game birds, or indeed sweet cherries. The first such usage I can find for something described as cooked "in a hole" where it presumably means something 'entombed' or 'buried', is this from Hannah Glasse in 'The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy' (1747):

Pigeons in a Hole
Take your Pigeons, season them with beaten Mace, Pepper and Salt; put a little Piece of Butter in the Belly, lay them in a Dish and pour a light Batter all over them, made with a Quart of Milk and Eggs, and four or five Spoonfuls of Flour; bake it, and send it to Table.It is a good Dish.

So I'm guessing that the biscuity toad-in-a-hole copied the visual idea of the first meaty ones, although both names first appear within just a few decades of each other. But enough of meaty toads, let's get back to crumbling biscuits.

In New Zealand/Aotearoa we have Anzac biscuits which are flour, sugar, coconut, rolled oats, butter, golden syrup, bicarbonate of soda and boiling water. Must date back to the first world war, I presume. Maybe they were packaged up for the soldiers. We celebrate Anzac Day on the 25th April, commemorating the Gallipoli landings and all soldiers who have died in war. There is a dawn parade in most towns and cities attended by many, including children. Why exactly we celebrate a defeat is a mystery. I suppose we don't actually celebrate it, but every year there is much writing about it in the newspapers and books come out - I think last year lockdowns cancelled it or at least made it a much less public and publicised event.

We also have Afghan biscuits, which are butter, sugar, flour, cocoa, and cornflakes, though recently I have seen calls for these to be renamed. And one of the biscuit recipes in NZ's most revered plain recipes, which almost every household would have and which was often sent off to kids going flatting for the first time has a very non-pc name - Duskies. They seem to be ordinary biscuits iced with chocolate icing and decorated with shredded coconut. I don't remember ever making those.

Caro wrote:

In New Zealand/Aotearoa we have Anzac biscuits which are flour, sugar, coconut, rolled oats, butter, golden syrup, bicarbonate of soda and boiling water. Must date back to the first world war, I presume. Maybe they were packaged up for the soldiers.

 
It is widely believed that Anzac biscuits were based on a type of Scottish oatcake that were often known as "Soldiers’ Biscuits" in the late 19th century, thence renamed when the Anzac acronym was coined; and that they were made in their thousands by the women on the home front to be sent to the soldiers. But actually, rather than being sent to the front lines, such biscuits were more commonly made to be sold at galas, fetes and other public events, to raise money for the war effort.

Certainly biscuits were sent to New Zealand and Australian troops but these were mostly made by established bakeries working on government contract. The biscuits had to be non-perishable as they travelled by sea with no refrigeration, so they were made from just rolled oats, sugar, plain flour, butter, golden syrup, baking soda and water. No eggs were used - firstly because they were scarce, and secondly they reduced the keeping properties of the biscuits - so the syrup alone was the binding agent.

But were these actually called Anzac biscuits?

The first use of the name "Anzac" that I can find in a recipe, was for "Anzac Cakes" in the 7th edition of the St Andrew's Cookery Book, published in New Zealand in 1915, the year of the landing at Gallipoli. These cakes appear to have been like rock cakes and were not really a biscuit. In 1917 The War Chest Cookery Book, published in Australia, included a recipe for "Anzac Biscuits", however the recipe was for another type of biscuit altogether (using eggs, cinnamon and mixed spice, and rice flour). The prototype of today's Anzac biscuit however does appear the same War Chest Cookery Book under the name "Rolled Oats Biscuits". In 1917 or 1918, exactly the same situation can be found in the Southland Red Cross Cookery Book published in New Zealand. This contained a recipe for "Anzac Pudding", while what are now known as Anzac biscuits appeared under the name "Rolled Oat Biscuits". Then in the 9th edition of the St Andrew's Cookery Book published in 1921, there are "Anzac Crispies" with the ingredients and method of modern Anzac biscuits. Meanwhile in Australia, The Australian National Dictionary says that the first correct recipe for biscuits called "Anzacs" appeared in 1923 in Mrs Shaw's Six Hundred Tested Recipes. This 1923 recipe is very similar to the 1921 New Zealand recipe for "Anzac Crispies". Subsequently coconut was introduced as an ingredient by 1927 and there was a wheatmeal variant (replacing the rolled or flaked oats) by 1929. Much more recently (1980s onwards) there seems to gave been several new variants introduced by cookbook writers, including versions with peanuts, sultanas, sesame seeds and chocolate chips.

Caro wrote:

We also have Afghan biscuits, which are butter, sugar, flour, cocoa, and cornflakes, though recently I have seen calls for these to be renamed.

 
I'm intrigued by the name of these, but having ferreted around online I'm still none the wiser as to the origin. There seem to be three main theories in circulation. One suggestion is that it originates from the Anglo-Afghan Wars although whether that's the first (1839 to 1842), the second (1878 to 1880) or the third (1919) is never clear, nor in fact what the connection might be (no New Zealand troops were involved in any of these conflicts as far as I am aware). Another idea is that the biscuit's texture is like the rugged landscape of Afghanistan, although again why link the biscuit specifically to Afghanistan; while a third suggestion is that was named after the traditional Afghan hat, the pakol.



Recipes for Afghan biscuits occur several times in New Zealand's iconic cookbook, The Sure to Rise Cookery Book which was first published in 1908 as a marketing tool by baking powder manufacturer Thomas Edmonds. However the book's first Afghan biscuit recipe only occurs in the 1940 edition. The Timaru Herald (21 August 1934) has a recipe for "Afghans"  but minus the icing and walnut, while an otherwise identical "Chocolate Cornflakes" biscuit recipe, complete with the modern Afghan's icing and walnut, appears in the same publication of the previous year (Timaru Herald, 9 September 1933).

         
"Today's Recipe" in the Timaru Herald, 21 August 1934 (L) and 9 September 1933 (R).

At about the same time there are grocery adverts for "Afghan Biscuits" made commercially by the New Zealand biscuit manufacturer Aulsebrook's (which was first established in Canterbury during the 1860s), such as this one appearing in The Evening Star (Dunedin) July 31st 1934, and note how the ad' describes the Afghan Biscuits as a "new line".



I can't find any reference to Afghan biscuits earlier than that.

However while hunting for the origin of Afghans I did find this which is the design on a modern tea towel; I guess they're all familiar to you Caro (there are no duskies though).



There's an Anzac and an Afghan, but also what's interesting in relation to my previous post about Jammy Dodgers, Empire biscuits and Spitzbuben, is the depiction on this tea towel of what is called a "Belgian biscuit" which was one of the names German Spitzbuben/Linzer biscuits were changed to because of anti-German sentiment during WW1 (the name Belgian biscuit was particularly adopted in Scotland in sympathy with German-occupied Belgium).

I was also interested in the depiction of the "Shrewsbury" as it appears to resemble a single slice Jammy Dodger or iced Empire biscuit. Nowadays a British Shrewsbury is a wheat-flour shortbread biscuit with a mild lemony flavour and a modest admixture of dried fruit, usually about 3in round, ¼in thick and with scalloped edges.  



In origin the Shrewsbury is a very old biscuit dating back to the 17th century. They were originally flavoured with rose-water and sweet spices (ginger, nutmeg or cinnamon), but later dropped the spices and changed the old-fashioned rose-water flavouring for a mild lemon flavour. For example this from Frederick Vine's Saleable Shop Goods for Counter-Tray and Window (1907):

No. 57.- Shrewsbury Cakes.
2 lbs. Vienna flour. 1 lb. sugar. ¾ lb. butter. 1oz. volatile. 3 eggs. Milk. Essence of lemon.
Mode, - Rub the butter and sugar into the flour; break the volatile down in a mortar with a little milk; break the eggs into the bay, add the volatile, a few drops of essence of lemon, and wet into dough with milk. Scale off into 5oz pieces; divide into two; mould up round, and roll out into 3 in. lengths; flatten out with your hand; wash over with milk, turn on to dust lump sugar, plate on to clean, greased tins; lay a slice of citron peel on top, and bake in a warm oven. Sell at 1d. each.

Those modern Asda Fruit Shrewsbury biscuits, because they contain currants, actually look a lot like traditional Yarmouth biscuits, such as made to this recipe from The Complete Confectioner by Frederick Nutt (1789):

No. 16. Yarmouth Biscuits.
TAKE six ounces of currants, wash and pick them very clean, dry them well, rub a little flour among them to make them white, and put half a pound of powdered sugar with the currants upon a clean dresser, add twelve ounces of flour sifted, and half a pound of the best fresh butter you can get; break three eggs and mix all the ingredients together to become a paste that you can roll it on the dresser the thickness of an eighth part of an inch, and then cut them out either round or what shape you fancy.
N. B. Your oven must be rather hot, and put two or three sheets of paper under them, do not bake them too much, only just make them brown.

And here are some Yarmouth biscuits made according to Nutt's 1789 recipe:



The classification of biscuits is complicated, n'est-ce pas?

Those mallowpuffs look very similar to Tunnocks' Tea Cakes:



The Outer Limits has just started. A dastardly Oriental power plan to replace POTUS with an exact duplicate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes Belgian biscuits are very popular in NZ, and I recognise nearly all those biscuits on that teatowel. I am not a biscuit fan so only like the less crunchy ones, like ginger crunch (usually now a ginger slice) and caramel slice. Kids love lolly cake but I basically can't think of anything much worse. The only one I don't seem to know is Raisin Biscuit.

I remember once when I was doing some market research (basically door to door asking an hour's worth of questions mostly for advertising magazines) a man very proudly giving me a piece of shortbread he had made and he didn't give me a cup of tea to wash it down. I really struggled with it and then he offered me a second piece. Fortunately while good manners meant I had to have the first piece, I didn't have to have a second one.

I'm surprised no one has as yet cheekily mentioned knobs and knob tossing. Dorset knobs are a type of notoriously hard and brittle biscuity bread roll, about the size and shape of a golf ball, and with a shelf life just about as long. They take their name either from a resemblance to common door-knobs or from the locally-made traditional woollen buttons of the same name. They were said, by his parlour maid, to have been a favourite of the author Thomas Hardy.

In the past there were a number of producers of Dorset knobs but today the only firm to produce them commercially is Moores Biscuits of Bridport, who have been baking biscuits in Dorset since 1860. Each knob biscuit is individually moulded by hand and has three separate bakings lasting a total of four hours, while the whole process takes eight to ten hours. Accordingly while Moores manufacture a variety of traditional biscuits all year round their Dorset knobs, because of the unusual and long processing time, are only produced during the months of January and February however being so dry and hard they keep well throughout the year. They are often sold in a distinctive and traditional tin.



The practice of Dorset knob throwing began in 2008 at a festival in the Dorset village of Cattistock, inspired by a Yorkshire pudding throwing game that the organiser had seen on television. The record throw of 29.4 metres (96 ft) was set in 2012. Other events at the festival included a knob and spoon race, knob darts, knob painting and guess the weight of the knob. In 2019 the event attracted over 8,000 people but it was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic, and this year (2022) it has been cancelled yet again because the organisers claim that the event is now too large for the small village committee to run. So all you tossers will just have to hold on to your knobs for a bit longer.  

For reasons which are not entirely clear the Dorset knob form was made compulsory as a soup roll during the rationing of World War II, probably because of its excellent keeping qualities and because they were generally smaller than usual bread rolls.


The Western Gazette (Yeovil, Somerset) - 29 January 1943.

I was wondering just how old such events are. The Cattistock festival is obviously very new but others such as cheese rolling in Gloucestershire and black pudding throwing in Lancashire etc claim older pedigrees. A roundel of hard cheese is a robust item and can tolerate being rolled down a hill. It can still be eaten afterwards. Not so with a hurled black pudding however. Overseas there is also a tomato throwing festival in Spain. Needless to say that the fruit in question are of no use whatsoever as food after that. That festival is also seemingly a 20th century invention. Surely the high cost of foodstuffs in the past must have precluded such profligacy. I know that the heathen or pagan origin of some festivals would suggest that the food is not seen as being wasted as such but rather is an offering to the gods. But were there times in the past when a glut of food saw other uses made of foodstuffs for fun or other innovations? The sweepings up after a tomato fight, for instance, would make excellent fertiliser.

P.S. If the knob is baked thrice, surely it should be called a triscuit.

"There was one D.O.
He was tall and he was thin
Until one cadet threw a tomato at him
Tomatos are soft
And don't bruise the skin
but this one was pusser's
and still in its tin"

Extract from "The Boys of BRNC".

D.O. - Civisional Officer, sort of Naval version of a housemaster
Pusser - Supply & Secretariat Branch.  Source of anything RN Issue.
BRNC - Britannia Royal Naval  College.

Quelle horreur. I see that Burton's Biscuits of Blackpool, makers of the Jammie Dodger, have now launched the Choccie Dodger. Is nothing sacred anymore?

Hmmmm. The only thing to say about this is that it is for the Swedish market.

Deleted - tacky post