[aamefford]

And I was excited when I broke 600... We ( and by we I mean you) need help and a possible intervention! Just funnin'. I've enjoyed many of those 9000+ posts!

 

[j.har1bo]

Vegeta, what does the scouter say about his post level?

IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND!

 

[Drag0n]

 

[craiglester]

Don't you mean biscuit?

nice Rich Tea.. or maybe a Penguin... mmm Penguins

 

[TopPop]

I thought you didn't care about any of this post count nonsense, Duggeh...

 

[Duggeh]

I don't. But I didn't have any cookies left.

Cookies are a kind of biscuit, to be the pedant.

 

[craiglester]

Yes, but they call everything cookies over here. It's all terribly vague. Biscuit here is some kind of scone like monstrosity, and often flaky.. and served with Gravy, which is often white.. it's all gone terribly wrong in the translation somewhere.

9003.. when you hit 25,000 you get a free can of Spam, you know.

 

[acidbasement]

Many congrats.

Hey look, my post count just went up again!

 

[ericj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by craiglester /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yes, but they call everything cookies over here. It's all terribly vague. Biscuit here is some kind of scone like monstrosity, and often flaky.. and served with Gravy, which is often white.. it's all gone terribly wrong in the translation somewhere.

I'll give you the shorthand explanation of scones vs. american biscuits:

Scones often have eggs in them. And are often sweet.

By strict definition, an American biscuit is something like a scottish scone, but the flavor ranges from neutral to savory rather than neutral to sweet. And despite the protestations of a certain belligerant teutonic baker who shall remain nameless, american biscuit dough contains no eggs. Ever. If you added an egg, it would immediately become scone dough.

Furthermore, there are both southern and northern american biscuits, with the northern american biscuit having at least two variations.

The thing about baked goods in the south part of the united states is that their flour sucks. You cannot grow decent wheat in that climate. What you get when you make white flour from southern wheat is something much closer to cake flour than the blend that would usually be called 'all purpose' flour. It's a matter of protein content - the hot weather prevents a high protein kernel from forming.

The southern american biscuit is, vaguely speaking, what you get from KFC. Though I'm certain the KFC variant is an abomination, it is still a close approximation. It contains flour, chemical leavening, a little salt, possibly a little sugar, and either lard or vegetable shortening in addition to either milk or buttermilk.

It is fluffy though not always light, and has no real texture.

Learning how to make an authentic southern american biscuit is easy: Acquire a bag of White Lilly(tm) Self-Rising Flour and follow the directions on the back. Everyone in the south learned this way or from someone else who learned this way.

But you have to use southern flour.

Wheat grown in colder climes - and you can even grow it in the winter - is harder and has more protein in it. Protein in flour is what makes the difference between a cake and a loaf of bread. Cake flour is 3 or 4 percent protein, bread flour is 11 to 13 percent protein. AP flour is like a 7.

Thus, the northern american biscuit can have texture.

The ingredients are basically similar to the southern biscuit with the exception that butter is sometimes used as part or all of the fat content, and the flour has more protein in it. Often the hydration is lower as well.

The major differences come down to processing. It's theorized that the northern american biscuit was expected to travel well - a southern biscuit is easily destroyed when you try to pack them. The northern american biscuit is historically tougher, but at the same time may be lighter and airier.

The added protein content means that the dough will form gluten when worked, and a northern american biscuit will undergo light kneading in a flatten-and-fold process which allows air pockets to form during the baking process.

The result is slightly breadier than the southern american biscuit - but, done properly, not heavier.

If you restrict the hydration of the dough even further and just pretend that you're making pastries, you can make a northern american biscuit that, well, has flaky pastry-like layers. This is labor intensive but the results can be good.

Of course, I live in Utah, where there's something else entirely that we call a scone, as well.

But none of this holds a candle to the nightmare of "currant" nomenclature that the british have cursed the world with.

Or that pepper/pimento nonsense started by the spaniards.

 

[Covenant]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Max /img/forum/go_quote.gif Dammit, I'm hungry now.

You sir, have an awesome avatar.

And back OT, Duggeh gets my

 

[9pintube]

congrats..........vanilla or chocolate?????

 

[The Monkey]

Duggeh, 9,000 posts is not enough. You need more burn-in.

 

[vpivinylspinner]

Watch it Duggeh, I am about to start my post leader offensive in which I will post either X2 or a quick synopsis of the previous posts in every thread until I blow by you on my way to the mosts posts in the History of Head-Fi.

You have been warned.