to americans...what do you consider a biscuit?

Question

after reading through the answers to sexmunki's question about fave biscuits im wondering what the american version of a biscuit is seen as they put gravy and everything on them

Answer 1

Biscuits in North American usage

American biscuits with honey.In American English, a "biscuit" is a small form of bread made with baking powder or baking soda as a leavening agent rather than yeast. (Biscuits, soda breads, and corn bread, among others, are sometimes referred to collectively as "quick breads" to indicate that they do not need time to rise before baking.)

Biscuits are extremely soft and similar to scones; in fact, many recipes are identical. In the United States, there is a growing tendency to refer to sweet variations as "scone" and to the savory as a "biscuit", though there are exceptions for both (such as the cheese scone). A sweet biscuit served with a topping of fruit and juice is called shortcake. In Canada, both sweet and savory are referred to as "biscuits", "baking powder biscuits" or "tea biscuits"; although "scone" is also starting to be used.

Biscuits are a common feature of Southern U.S. cuisine and are often made with buttermilk. They are traditionally served as a side dish with a meal, especially in the morning. As a breakfast item they are often eaten with butter and a sweet condiment such as molasses, light sugarcane syrup, sorghum syrup, honey, or fruit jam or jelly. With other meals they are usually eaten with butter or gravy instead of sweet condiments. However, biscuits and gravy (biscuits covered in country gravy) are usually served for breakfast, sometimes as the main course.

A common variation on basic biscuits is "cheese biscuits", made by adding grated Cheddar or American cheese to the basic recipe.

Large drop biscuits, because of their size and rough exterior texture, are sometimes referred to as "cat head biscuits".

Biscuits are now ubiquitous throughout the U.S. and feature prominently in many fast food breakfast sandwiches. The biscuit sandwich burst onto the scene primarily through the Hardee's chain of restaurants as an answer to the McDonald's Egg McMuffin. Along with the traditional country ham, Hardee's added sausage, cheese, eggs, steak, and even chicken to the breakfast bread. Breakfast biscuits are much bigger than ham biscuits, most as big or bigger than a typical fast food hamburger. In addition, biscuits are commonly found as a side dish at fried chicken restaurants such as Kentucky Fried Chicken, Bojangles', Church's Chicken, & Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits.

Beaten biscuits
Beaten biscuits date from the 1800s [1] and are a Southern U.S. food. They differ from a regular biscuit in that they are more like hardtack instead of soft because the dough is beaten with a hard object or against a hard surface for at least a half hour. They are also pricked with a fork prior to baking and are usually smaller than a regular biscuit. These are the biscuits traditionally used in "ham biscuits", a traditional Southern canapé, which are simply tiny sandwiches of these bite-sized biscuits sliced horizontally, spread with butter or mustard, and filled with pieces of Smithfield ham.

Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking-School Cook Book of 1896 gives a recipe for beaten biscuits but calls them "Maryland Biscuit". The ingredients are flour, lard, salt, and water and the recipe was provided by a "Southern Pupil".

Answer 2

An American biscuit is a flaky roll made from flour, shortening, some leaveners, and not much else. Some like them tall, some like them short. They're similar to a savory scone. My grandma remembers an old lady would make "beaten biscuits" that were tasty. The woman had been a slave to an English person and had been taught the method in England before coming here. You basically make the dough and then beat the heck out of it with the rolling pin. The viscous action caused the shortening to mix with the flour in such a way as to produce a very flaky yet short biscuit with a good crust. So, that's an ancient way of making them. Grandma's 100 and this lady was real old so no comments on the morality of her situation, that's just the way it was.

Answer 3

As far as I know an American biscuit is like an English savoury scone, eaten with butter or with gravy (which isn't like English gravy - it's more like a white sauce often with little bits of sausage in it). These are usually eaten alongside a main meal in much the same way as we'd eat a bread roll, or they can be a meal in themselves. The word we use in England "biscuit" of course translates to the American "cookie". So our meaning of the word biscuit is not the same thing at all. I hope this helps.

Answer 4

To Americans, a biscuit is what is called in the UK a scone .... the ones that you roll out and cut, either plain scones or cheese scones ... and they come with more complete names like baking powder or baking soda biscuits, or beaten biscuits, buttermilk biscuits, cream biscuits....

They are also the basis for an old classic Strawberry Shortcake, which is made with a baking powder biscuit, crushed and sweetened berries, and some whipped cream.

And, dog biscuits.

Answer 5

Being a brit who lives in America, I can clear up the confusion. A biscuit in England is a cookie. A bisquit in America is a bread, often eaten for breakfast, made from flour, baking soda, and shortning. It is mixed into a dough, then cut into rounds about 2 inches in diameter, is baked for a few minutes until it gets light and fluffy and is usually topped with butter and jam, or sausage gravy. Here is a pic of one
http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=1&ct=result&cd=1&q=biscuit&spell=1 The second picture down from the top. on the right is what an american biscuit looks like-try googling a recipe and making some. They are delicious! They are fairly similar to a scone, but with a different texture and taste

Answer 6

The biscuit in America is made with
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick of room temperature butter
2/3 cups buttermilk

mix the dry stuff, cut with two knives the butter, pour all the buttermilk at once, mix well, cut into round shapes using your biggest cookie cutter (British: biscuit cutter) after rolling on a flour board. bake it on light greased pie plate.

Maple syrup and butter on the table.

Answer 7

In certain parts of the country, biscuits and gravy are popular. Keep in mind that one part of the country can be very different then another part. Much different cultures. For example, take the northeast U.S and the deep south...it's like night and day.

Answer 8

Made w/flour, buttermilk, etc. Nothing like a nice big right out of the oven buttermilk biscuit cut open into two halves w/ sausage gravy on it! EMMM.

Answer 9

I lved in New Zealand a few years and found out that scones are also referred to as what Americans called biscuits.

Answer 10

a biscuit is a bread baked golden brown, mostly served at breakfast but at other meals, some. It is shaped like a hockey puck if that helps.