Biscuits for travel , Denmark The need for nutritious, easy-to-store, easy-to-carry, and long-lasting foods on long journeys, in particular at sea, was initially solved by taking livestock along with a butcher/
cook. However, this took up additional space on what were either horse-powered treks or small ships, reducing the time of travel before additional food was required. This resulted in early armies' adopting the style of hunter-
foraging. The introduction of the
baking of processed cereals, including the creation of flour, provided a more reliable source of food.
Egyptian sailors carried a flat, brittle loaf of
millet bread called
dhourra cake while the
Romans had a biscuit called
buccellum. To soften hardtack for eating, it was often dunked in
brine, coffee, or some other liquid or
cooked into a skillet meal. The collection
Sayings of the Desert Fathers mentions that
Anthony the Great (who lived in the 4th century AD) ate biscuits and the text implies that it was a popular food among monks of the time and region. 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.
Samuel Pepys in 1667 first regularised naval victualling with varied and nutritious rations. Royal Navy hardtack during
Queen Victoria's reign was made by machine at the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard at
Gosport, Hampshire, stamped with the Queen's mark and the number of the oven in which they were baked. When machinery was introduced into the process the dough was thoroughly mixed and rolled into sheets about long and wide which were stamped in one stroke into about sixty hexagonal-shaped biscuits. This left the sheets sufficiently coherent to be placed in the oven in one piece and when baked they were easy to separate. The hexagonal shape rather than traditional circular biscuits meant a saving in material and was easier to pack. 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.
Confectionery biscuits Early biscuits were hard, dry, and unsweetened. They were most often cooked after bread, in a cooling bakers' oven; they were a cheap form of sustenance for the poor. By the 7th century AD, cooks of the
Sassanian Empire had learnt from their forebears the techniques of lightening and enriching bread-based mixtures with eggs, butter, and cream, and sweetening them with fruit and honey. One of the earliest spiced biscuits was
gingerbread, in French, ''pain d'épices'', meaning "spice bread", brought to Europe in 992 by the
Armenian monk Grégoire de
Nicopolis. He left Nicopolis Pompeii, of
Lesser Armenia to live in
Bondaroy, France, near the town of
Pithiviers. He stayed there for seven years and taught French priests and Christians how to cook gingerbread. This was originally a dense,
treaclely (molasses-based) spice cake or bread. As it was so expensive to make, early
ginger biscuits were a cheap form of using up the leftover bread mix.
biscuit tin. Formed in
Reading, Berkshire, in 1822, the biscuit company became one of the world's first global
brands. With the combination of knowledge spreading from
Al-Andalus, and then the
Crusades and subsequent spread of the
spice trade to Europe, the cooking techniques and ingredients of Arabia spread into Northern Europe.
King Richard I of England (aka Richard the Lionheart) left for the
Third Crusade (1189–92) with "biskit of muslin", which was a mixed corn compound of
barley,
rye, and
bean flour. The first documented trade of gingerbread biscuits dates to the 16th century, where they were sold in monastery pharmacies and town square farmers markets. Gingerbread became widely available in the 18th century. The
Industrial Revolution in Britain sparked the formation of businesses in various industries, and the British biscuit firms of
McVitie's,
Carr's,
Huntley & Palmers, and
Crawfords were all established by 1850. British biscuit companies vied to dominate the market with new products and eye-catching packaging. The decorative
biscuit tin, invented by Huntley & Palmers in 1831, saw British biscuits exported around the world. Competition and innovation among British firms saw 49 patent applications for biscuit-making equipment, tins, dough-cutting machines and ornamental moulds between 1897 and 1900.
Introduction in South Asia , a brand exported to Asia Biscuits and
loaves were introduced in
Bengal during the British colonial period and became popular within the
Sylheti Muslim community. However, the middle-class
Hindus of
Cachar and
Sylhet were very suspicious of biscuits and breads as they believed they were baked by Muslims. On one occasion, a few Hindus in Cachar caught an Englishman eating biscuits with tea, which caused an uproar. The information reached the Hindus of Sylhet and a small rebellion occurred. In response to this, companies started to advertise their bread as "machine-made" and "untouched by (Muslim) hand" to tell Hindus that the breads were "safe for consumption". This incident is mentioned in
Bipin Chandra Pal's autobiography and he mentions how culinary habits of Hindus gradually changed and biscuits and loaves eventually became increasingly popular. ==Types==