Who Invented The First Biscuit Cutter?

National Buttermilk Biscuit Day is observed each year in the United States on May 14. This food holiday celebrates the delicious biscuit.

• 7th AD – By the seventh century AD, cooks of the Persian empire had learned from their forebears the techniques of lightening and enriching bread-based mixtures with eggs, butter, and cream, and sweetening them with fruit and honey.
• 1588 – At the time of the Spanish Armada in 1588, the daily allowance on board a Royal Navy ship was one pound of biscuit plus one gallon of beer.
• 1667 – Samuel Pepys in 1667 first regularized naval victualing with varied and nutritious rations. Royal Navy hardtack during Queen Victoria‘s reign was made by machine at the Royal Clarence Victualing Yard at Gosport, Hampshire, stamped with the Queen’s mark and the number of the oven in which they were baked.
• 1700s – Twice-baked and flat, these hard and dry biscuits are used by soldiers and sailors.
• 19th Century – The biscuit emerges as a distinct food item before the American Civil War
• 19th Century – The Industrial Revolution began mass production of desserts and pastries.
• the 1800s – Likely originating in southern Appalachia, this decidedly southern home-cooking dish, Biscuits and Gravy, makes its way onto breakfast plates.
• 1847 – Biscuits remained an important part of the Royal Navy sailor’s diet until the introduction of canned foods. Canned meat was first marketed in 1814; preserved beef in tins was officially added to Royal Navy rations in 1847.
• 1860 – This critical ingredient that acts as a leavening agent in buttermilk biscuits makes its way into homes.
• 1875 – Alexander P. Ashbourne patented the first biscuit cutter in 1875.
• 1931 – Ballard and Ballard patented refrigerated biscuits. Supermarkets stat offering canned biscuits ready to be baked.
• 1967 – Maurice Jennings opens Pizzaville Restaurants and begins selling buttermilk biscuits too. 1975 He opens the first Biscuitville location.
• The biscuits are often referred to as “quick bread,” indicating they do not need time to rise before baking. While being made, the dough is beaten and folded to incorporate air, which expands while baking, causing the biscuit to rise.
• Before the American Civil War, biscuits emerged as an inexpensive addition to meals. This sturdier bread product soon became popular as people realized it absorbed the gravy on their plates better than plain bread. Soon a new family favorite, biscuits and gravy, was created.
• In the United Kingdom, the word “biscuit” is used to refer to what we in the United States would call a “cookie”.
• The average buttermilk biscuit has over 200 calories.
• White flour, commonly used to bake biscuits, is almost instantly metabolized into sugar.  Biscuits will quickly spike your blood sugar level.
• Mustard is a common condiment to use on biscuits in the south, especially to accompany ham.
• Most biscuit recipes call for a healthy dose of butter in the baking process.  Despite this, many people butter their biscuits after they are served.
• The main difference between biscuits and rolls is the leavening agent.  Biscuits use baking soda.  Rolls use yeast.
• In the United States and Canada it is a small, soft, leavened bread, somewhat similar to a scone. A Southern regional variation of the term, beaten biscuit, is closer to the British form.
• The Middle French word biscuit 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.
• Many early physicians believed that most medicinal problems were associated with digestion. Thus, a daily consumption of a biscuit was considered good for health.
• Egyptian sailors carried a flat, brittle loaf of millet bread called dhourra cake while the Romans had a biscuit called buccellum. Roman cookbook Apicius describes: “a thick paste of fine wheat flour was boiled and spread out on a plate. When it had dried and hardened, it was cut up and then fried until crisp, then served with honey and pepper.”
• Typically, crumbly buttermilk biscuits mean they have too much flour.

Sources:

National Day Calendar

Foodimentary

Mobile-Cuisine

Kids.Kiddie

Always The Holidays

National Today